After the Leaving
by Raycd
Summary: My take on season 6. I never felt that the series did justice to Chuck or Ellie's intelligence, so this is my take on it. Don't own Chuck or have any rights to it.
1. Chapter 1

Chuck – After the leaving

They sat on the beach and Chuck told Sarah their story. She was moved… incredibly moved… more than she had ever been in her violent, emotionally stunted life. She didn't seem able to push down her emotions like she used to… her stoicism was gone. She was beside herself with confusion. Here was Chuck telling her about this life she apparently had been living, the life she had always wanted but never in her wildest dreams thought she could have. She knew it was true… she told herself in the video log about the first couple of years… told herself that she loved Chuck Bartowski. But how was that possible, all she knew how to be was a spy. She had been trained by first her father and then the CIA to bury her emotions, never get emotionally attached... never to trust. She believed deep down that she didn't deserve love, not even sure she knew what real love was. But, here was Chuck telling her he loved her and wanted her to be happy, was willing to do anything for her to be happy.

She knew he would do anything for her. Over the past week she had seen it. He allowed her to beat him and never fought back. She kicked him down a flight of stairs… she almost killed him. Then the kicker… she watched him take a bullet for her.

Getting to the end of their story, Chuck told her about their plans, the transformation of Carmichael Industries from a freelance spy company into a cyber security company that would keep them occupied and interested, but much safer than the spy life they had led up until then; their plans for children; the home they wanted to buy.

Chuck told her about Morgan's wild idea and Sarah asked him to kiss her, wishing with all her being that Morgan's prediction would come true, that she would remember everything and her feeling for Chuck would return. The kiss was… well… incredible. But… was it enough? Something stirred… not memories, but her feelings… something was going on with her feelings. She couldn't remember the love Chuck said they shared, but feelings for the big nerd were certainly stirring. Was that love? What did love feel like? Could she really trust this man? All these emotions terrified her... it was all too much... too intense. She needed time.

"I'm sorry Chuck… I… I need to… I don't know what… I need to go back to being an agent… at least for a while… to even myself out… to process all this. I hope… I'm sure that once I've been able to sort this all out… to think about what you've told me… to get my feelings in line… well I hope I can come back to you. But don't wait Chuck. You're far too good a man to wait around for the likes of me to maybe come back to you. If you find someone else, don't hold back… you deserve to be happy."

With tears streaking down his cheeks, Chuck slowly pulled an envelope from his pocket. "I got this ready for you in case of something like this."

"What is it?"

"I know my Sarah… Sarah Bartowski… but I also know Agent Walker. So just in case… this is a way to contact General Beckman. She can put you in touch with whoever you need to talk to, to get back into the CIA. Also there is an e-mail account and password that you can use to contact us… your family. Our secure e-mail accounts are already loaded. It's safe and secure, and the CIA knows nothing about it. Finally, there is your driver's license and a credit card under Sarah Walker, instead of Sarah Bartowski, just in case you need it. Please remember Sarah, I… we… are always here for you. You can always trust me. I love you… more than you can ever imagine."

Sarah stared at him for a moment, but with nothing left to say, rose and left. Why was this so hard? She literally had to force herself to take each step. She wanted so much to be Sarah Bartowski… to stay with Chuck and be his wife… but she didn't know how. She had to be in control… just giving herself to Chuck and trusting he would do the right thing was so against everything she had been taught. She almost turned back… almost… she just couldn't take the last step to trust him… well, to trust anybody really.

The next day, she contacted General Beckman, who in turn put her in touch with the CIA. She received an almost joyous welcome. She was a little taken aback by the enthusiasm of her superiors getting her back, especially considering her issues. She was hustled off to Washington for a series of meetings with the brass, to determine just how to best use her knowledge and skills. She was extremely suspicious of this reception and after a few cryptic remarks, she decided to do some nosing around.

First things first, she got all the mission reports for Team Bartowski. That was a lot easier than it should have been, considering their security level. She snuck a look at her personnel file and was astounded at her own security clearance… much higher than it had been prior to her involvement with Team Bartowski, but still not high enough for the debriefing reports. Looking at the reports she realized that she had access because she was one of the authors of the reports. All the reports were written by her and John Casey.

It took her almost a week to get through all the reports. The team had been on an incredible number of missions, nearly all successful. They had been instrumental in taking on and destroying the three most dangerous enemy groups in recent history. First Fulcrum, then the Ring and finally Volkoff Enterprises. No wonder the brass was happy to get her back. She was one third of the most successful spy team in history, according to these reports. Plus, she was the team leader! She started comparing what Chuck had told her about their life to the mission reports, and everything jibed. Of course Chuck had concentrated on their relationship not the missions, but everything he told her matched the reports. She was a little shaken by the number of times Chuck had saved her life. Of course she had saved his a lot more, but that was in the early years and it was her job. What really astounded her was the trust… she could see it in the reports. Not just her and Chuck, but all three of them. They all trusted each other unequivocally.

She also analyzed the reports. The thing that stood out was Chuck himself. He had started out as an asset, but quickly proved to be much more than that. Over the years she could see that more and more, it was Chuck's ideas and plans that saved the day, kept them all alive and foiled the bad guys. Foiled the bad guys? Where did that come from? Nobody talks like that. Regardless, by the time she was done with the reports her respect for Chuck… and Casey by the way… was tremendous. Chuck wasn't just a nerd, he was a flipping genius.

Finally, the brass decided on her new role… they were going to use her as a kind of special reserve, head of a rescue team, reporting directly to the Deputy Director, taking on the worst and most dangerous assignments. She began her weapons and hand-to-hand fighting recertification's. As she did, she eavesdropped incessantly on other agents. Where ever she went, the talk often was about Team Bartowski. Of course they never called it Team Bartowski, the name was not known, they just called it the "California Team" or "Team Burbank" or mostly "The A Team". They did know her old name, knew that the team consisted of the famous Sarah Walker, top NSA Agent John Casey and another agent, or maybe a hotshot analysist, name unknown. Nobody associated her with Sarah Walker, she had a new identity now. None of them knew why the team had broken up or where the various members had gone, but they all had opinions and guesses. She contacted an old friend at the NSA to get the gossip from there and it was pretty much the same.

After finishing her recert's, again setting records by the way, she was set to begin missions again. She had her new identity, and a luxurious apartment in Washington D.C., a very expensive car and an almost unrestricted expense account. She headed a team with two other agents, both highly experienced and trained individuals, Amy and George. They were the Mission Agent Rescue Team. Whenever a mission went south or an agent was in danger, in they went. She also found out that whenever she was on a mission, she was tied directly into an intelligence unit, code name Foxfire, that gave her anything she needed in the way of information; bio's on enemy agents, building layouts, evasion routes… anything. All she had to do was ask and they were spewing forth all the info she could possibly want… sometimes she didn't even have to ask, Foxfire having anticipated the need. On her third mission, a voice she had never heard, came up on her earpiece. She was standing on a subway platform and the voice warned her that the man thirty feet or so to her left was an enemy agent who would recognize her. She quickly realized that Foxfire was tapping into security cameras and computer systems where ever the team went. They also had sniper teams watching over them, which she found out the hard way. An enemy agent got the drop on her and just as he was about to kill her, a hole magically appeared in his forehead and he slammed back into a wall. A voice came up on her earbud saying "All clear". Then there was the tacteam that always seemed to be close by.

For almost six months she and her team performed missions that other teams had failed at, sometimes having to extract the original team or agent in the process. A number of times she ran across John Casey, but each time it was in the field and she didn't get a chance to talk to him. On every mission the info she got on her earpiece telling her what was going on and what she had to do was incredibly accurate. At times, all she and her team did was go where they were told to go, follow who they were told to follow and do what they were told to do. Of course, what they were told to do was much more than most agents could possibly accomplish, but accomplish it they did. They completed busted missions, saved captured or wounded agents, defused bombs ready to kill hundreds of civilians, recovered stolen weapons caches… on and on. Sarah was beginning to believe that this team was just as good as Team Bartowski.

Several times they were loaned to other agencies. They did a mission for the DEA in Colombia, which Sarah had hoped would involve Carina, but no dice. They even did a mission for MI6. That one was kind of odd because several of the British agents acted like they knew George, but he brushed it off as mistaken identity.

While on missions she was able to concentrate and focus on the mission, as she always could. She was highly professional, very intense and completely unemotional, almost cold. She did not banter with her team mates, kidding around or bonding. She knew almost nothing about either one and they knew nothing about her. They went out, did the job and came back. As soon as they hit home turf, everyone went their own way. Off mission they trained, studied, wrote reports, but never, never, "hung out". They, especially Sarah, were pure business. Not that George didn't try. A number of times he tried to get her to have dinner with him, or just drinks, lunch, an early morning coffee, anything… she cut him off every time. She even refused to go out with Amy the times she asked.

But it was all a façade. When she wasn't on business, Sarah could think of nothing but Chuck and their life together. She watched every video of them she could lay her hands on, over and over. She would stare at photos for hours at a time. She went over her own video log time and time again. Early on she had used the secure e-mail account Chuck had given her to ask Chuck and the others to send her video, audio, photos… anything they had… and they had responded with gusto. Every week more and more e-mails came in with stories, videos, photos… even songs she had liked. Chuck sent her little videograms each week, telling her what was happening at home, how everything was going and how much everyone missed her. The videograms from Chuck really got to her. With each one, something was stirring within her. She would inexplicably find herself smiling, with wet cheeks while she watched them. It really didn't matter what he was talking about… the latest movie he had seen or Morgan's latest bit of insanity. If he was late a day or God forbid actually missed a week she was beside herself, worrying, wondering… was he giving up? Everything she saw reinforced what she already knew. She had loved Chuck Bartowski, deeply loved him… somehow he had taught her what love was. But far more importantly, he loved her, completely, totally and unreservedly.

About five months in, she was sitting watching one of Chucks videograms. She thought to herself that Chuck looked particularly sexy this time. Sexy? Chuck? Yup… she had to admit he looked good… real good. Just for a second this lost herself, found her hand half way to the monitor like she was going to stroke his hair. What the hell? Was he getting to her? Quickly this closed out the videogram and shut down her PC, totally confused about what she was feeling. The next day she tried again, and managed to rewatch the videogram all the way through. She was starting to believe that love was real… it was possible… and maybe, just maybe, it was possible for her.

It was a chilly November morning; Sarah, or Rebecca Chase, her current identity, woke. She hurt everywhere. The last mission was… well it was successful, but every member of her team was wounded and two of the dozen civilians they were tasked with rescuing were dead. But they got the stolen weapons cache back, and saved the rest of the hostages, so the brass were highly satisfied. They had snuck in and protected the hostages while the Tactical Team assaulted the terrorist. They managed to take down not one but two terrorist cells, one selling arms to the other. In the process, Rebecca had taken a bullet in the shoulder and two shots in the vest, leaving her with a hole in her shoulder and a couple of bruised ribs.

She laid in bed thinking… about Chuck. Somewhere out there was a man who loved her more than life. She knew that they had risked their lives together any number of times, and that he had at least twice faced certain death just on a chance he could save her. She saw him take a bullet meant for her. He loved her so much that he let her go, so she could find herself… find happiness. It suddenly hit her how much that must have hurt him. He actually loved her more than life itself.

She suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, bringing waves of pain which she cared nothing for. She loved Chuck Bartowski… it had been coming on for weeks now, but it suddenly hit her like a bolt of lightning… she loved Chuck Bartowski. She gasped, hands flying to cover her mouth and she began to cry. She loved Charles Irving Bartowski. She'd been fighting it for weeks now. How could she have been so foolish? Tears slid down her cheeks and she sobbed openly. She thought to herself that Rebecca Chase didn't cry. No, but Sarah Walker did… more importantly, Sarah Bartowski did. She was Sarah Lisa Bartowski, not Rebecca Chase. She might not remember her previous life directly, but all the stories and photo's and video's suddenly became real, became her memories of that time.

She had to find Chuck… go to him… beg him to take her back. Wait… what if… what if he had moved on? She was the one who left... she had told him not to wait. What if he didn't? He had never said anything in his videograms, but then would he, if he had started dating again? He was such an incredible man… what if some other woman had snatched him up? She had already hurt him so much… she couldn't hurt him again… not if he had moved on and found happiness. She had to find him, but quietly, she had to find out where he was, what he was doing and if he was with anyone, all without him finding out… without her hurting him yet again… and she couldn't use agency resources to do it.

Well, she figured, let's start out the obvious way. She went to her computer, pulled up Google and typed in "Charles Bartowski". The few hits she got had nothing to do with Chuck, except for one announcement from Stanford saying he had received his degree. Next she tried Carmichael Industries. No record of Carmichael Industries… nothing at all. That was odd. She knew that the company existed when she left… why was there no trace on the internet now? This smacks of hacking… Chuck Bartowski Piranha type hacking… erasing all references to Carmichael Industries. What next? What did she do now? Hmmm, what about…? Next search was for Eleanor Woodcomb. Ah… that's more like it. Head of Neurology, yeah… what's this? Member of the Board of Directors of Orion Industries. Orion was the code name of a CIA wizard… no couldn't be… so why was Ellie associated with the company. President of Orion is Alex McHugh. Wonder who this guy is? Wait, Alex McHugh was Casey's daughter. Now we're getting somewhere.

She'd been on the computer for maybe thirty minutes when there was a knock on the door.

Opening the door, Rebecca was faced with two burly men in suits. "Can I help you?"

"Yes ma'am… the Associate Director wants to see you."

"Now? I'm wounded and in no condition for a mission. My whole team is down."

"Yes ma'am… as you say. The Associate Director wants to see you… now."

The ride took thirty minutes and neither of the two agents said so much as a word. Rebecca was ushered into the office of a man she didn't know, still "escorted" by the two burly agents. The man behind the desk looked up as they came in and motioned for Sarah to sit.

Neither said a word as the man perused a document in his hand.

"Successful team… coming off a hard mission."

The man looked up as he said it and stared at Rebecca. He motioned for the two agents to leave.

"I'm Associate Director Ronald Bowman, internal security. Why were you making inquiries about…" he looked down at the paper in his hand "…Charles Bartowski?"

Stoically Rebecca stared back. "He's an old friend and I was trying to find him."

"An old friend. Oddly, your file only covers your skills recertification and the missions your current team went on. Nothing before that… it has all been expunged. When did you know this old friend?"

"I was on his team… Chuck, John Casey and I… Team Bartowski."

"STOP! DO NOT SAY ANOTHER WORD!"

Bowman lifted his phone and dialed a number. "Can you come to my office? Thirty minutes… thank you."

For thirty minutes Bowman and Chase sat and stared at each other. Finally the door opened and a uniformed female officer entered. Bowman rose and after whispering a few words to the woman, left the office. Rebecca still hadn't gotten a look at her.

"Hello Sarah."

Startled Rebecca whipped around then relaxed "Hello General Beckman."

The General walked around the desk and sat behind it. "Sarah, what the hell are you doing? Why are you looking for Chuck."

By this point Sarah's stoicism broke "I'm looking for my HUSBAND, Diane!"

Taken aback by the venom in Sarah's tone Beckman actually recoiled, then made calming gesturers "Okay Sarah… calm down."

"You calm down! Where's Chuck? Why the hell do inquiries about Chuck bring this kind of response?"

"Actually Sarah, I can't tell you that… I can't tell you anything. Chuck was put under a very high security lock down when the Inter… um… that project was shut down. Please do not ask about Chuck again… anywhere."

"What's going on… Chuck was a civilian when I left. Did he go back to spying? Where is he?"

"Sarah… all I can tell you is, that project was shut down because Chuck was the only successful user anyone ever had. Every other person who loaded IT either went mad or… well… as you know… had some other adverse reaction. The technology didn't work, it was dangerous. With Orion dead, none of our scientists have been able to figure out why Chuck made it work, but he was the only one. All traces of the technology have been wiped away and even the team name is on high security lockdown. That's why Bowman called me. You, I, Chuck, John Casey and damn few other people even know that project ever existed, much less what it was all about."

"So what now?"

"I'll clear you, but you can't do this again. If you make any COMPUTER inquiries about any of this, you're going to end up in hack with internal security."

Sarah got the hint with Diane's emphasis of COMPUTER. That was fine… Sarah had other ideas on how to find Chuck.

Getting back to her apartment, Sarah quickly packed and was on a plane in less than an hour. Chicago was a two hour flight. She thought it was kind of ironic that this was the first time she had used the credit card Chuck had given her.

Ellie was just getting ready for work when she got the call from reception, so she was waiting for…

"SARAH!"

"Hello Ellie." Sarah didn't know how to greet her one time friend and sister-in-law. One of the last times Sarah had seen Ellie, Sarah was threatening her with a gun. On the other hand, Ellie had no qualms about wrapping Sarah in a huge hug and kissing her cheeks… repeatedly.

"Oh God it is so good to see you. Come in… come in. You're hurt… what happened?"

Before Sarah could respond, Ellie began fussing. "Let me look."

"Ellie… it's okay. It's just a hole in my shoulder and a couple of bruised ribs, that's all."

"It's not okay… take your blouse off and let me see."

Ellie insisted on reviewing everything that had been done to Sarah in the hospital. Before Sarah knew it an hour had gone by and they had talked about nothing but Sarah's injuries. Ellie had looked at the shoulder wound and redressed it, then checked out Sarah's ribs.

"Ellie, weren't you on your way to work?"

"Are you serious? I'm not leaving you here like this. I texted my assistant and told him I wouldn't be in today. He can handle it."

"But Ellie…"

"Don't you but Ellie me Sarah Bartowski! You may be a Bartowski by marriage but a Bartowski you are. No matter what you remember, you're my sister… and my friend."

It suddenly hit Sarah all at once. Chuck wasn't the only one she had run from. Ellie, Awesome, Casey, even Morgan and Alex, she guessed… all had been her friends, her family, and all of them cared about her. She hadn't had anyone care about her like that since she was a child. Ellie just said it… no matter what she remembers, they were her family… they ARE her family. She started sniffling, then her face got all screwed up and she burst into tears just as Ellie again wrapped her in a hug. They sat there with Ellie hugging her and Sarah crying on her shoulder for ten minutes, till Sarah finally ran down.

"I'm sorry… it just kind of hit me all at once."

"It's okay Honie… better now?"

"Yes, thanks… I'll be fine."

"Now… do you want to talk about why you're here?"

"Um… this is kind of awkward. Ellie? Is Chuck… um… seeing anyone?"

Ellie kind of looked at Sarah with a funny expression on her face. "Seeing anyone? Of course not. Sarah… Chuck is married."

"WHAT? He got married? Oh my God!"

"No Sarah… he's married… to you! What? You think he's going to bail at the first sign of trouble? It's going to take a lot more than a little memory loss to get rid of him. If you want out you're going to have to tell him… and even then I'm not sure he'll go."

Sarah had bounced to her feet when Ellie said he was married. Now she slumped back down to the couch.

"First sign of trouble? It's been six months. I almost killed him… I almost killed you! Ellie… where is he? I mentioned his name at the CIA and almost got arrested. What in the world is going on?"

Suddenly Ellie got nervous and evasive. "I don't know what you mean. Chuck's around. He's got the company up and running… doing pretty well, from what I hear."

Sarah sighed. Well at least she knew that they were still married and that he had not moved on. Now to find out what was going on and where Chuck was. She was just about to start in on Ellie when the front door burst open and Chuck strode in.

"Looking for me?"

Sarah flew into his arms and the crying jag started again. Chuck gently hugged her when she knew that he wanted to crush her in his arms. Wait… that meant he knew about… how could he know? None of that mattered anyway.

"Chuck? Can… can I come home?"

At the end of the _Princess Bride_ , there is a kiss between Wesley and Buttercup that is compared to "the five greatest kisses of all time" saying that Wesley and Buttercup's kiss left them all behind. The kiss that Sarah and Chuck now shared made Wesley and Buttercup's kiss look like a brotherly peck on the cheek.

Ellie stood beaming, watching the pair; then she wiped her eyes, gathered her things, whispered in Chuck's ear and left. Chuck nodded to Ellie's whisper without breaking the lip lock. Finally they came up for air.

"Um… I forget… what was the question?" The two beamed at each other for a moment then Chuck led her from the apartment to the one across the hall.

"My apartment. Now you go get in bed."

"Um, Chuck… you seem to know about my wounds."

"Ummm… yes. You get in bed and go to sleep. You've been up for way too long, you're injured and tired and need to recuperate. We have the rest of our lives to… um… get reacquainted."

Sarah looked lovingly at Chuck. All he was concerned with was her well being… that was all he was ever concerned with. Wait a minute, all he was concerned with was her well being. "You know all about my injuries… I'll bet you know all about everything I've been doing… you've been watching me the whole time. Wait… not watching me… HELPING me. YOU'RE FOXFIRE! I should have known!"

"You really want to talk about this now? Okay… I was afraid you'd figure it out while on a mission, get distracted and… but I couldn't risk it… I couldn't risk you being… well not being with you was bad enough… if you died on a mission…" Chuck got a catch in his voice and couldn't go on. This time is was Sarah's turn to wrap him in a hug.

"I'm sorry… this is all my fault… if I could have trusted you back on the beach when you asked me to, none of this would have been necessary. I'm sorry I put you through this… you and Ellie and Awesome, Morgan, Alex, Casey, all of you. It must have been… well I am so sorry." The kiss this time was only about half as long.

"How did you pull this off?"

"Well, that day on the beach, when you left, you said you needed to go back to spying for a while, which meant the CIA. Like I said, I know Agent Walker. I prayed you'd come home with me, but I planned for what I figured you might do, so I had already contacted General Beckman and we made a deal. She got a functioning Team Bartowski back, bigger and better than ever, and I got to watch over you. The voices in your ear piece were mostly Morgan and my Mom, slightly distorted. I was in the background feeding them info. I actually did your first mission but it was just too hard. Anyway, the whole thing was set up and paid for by our company as a sub-contractor to the CIA. Your MAR team was the tip of the spear. Starting with the second mission, Casey had sniper teams watching over you, and a Tactical Team curtesy of Verbanski Enterprises waiting close by. Everyone was in on it. Your guy George is actually an MI6 agent named Cole Barker that we worked with a couple of years ago. Physically he is by far the best agent we had ever worked with, closer to being the equal of Agent Carmichael using the Intersect than any other agent we have ever met. He also is one of the people that I know who cares about you nearly as much as I do. I told him… um… that if you guys got close… well if you couldn't come back to me I knew he would keep you safe… anyway, MI6 was convinced to second him to us. The female agent was tougher to find. I couldn't use Carina or Zondra, you still knew both of them and they didn't know about the intersect anyway. Yes… I know… you don't trust Zondra… we resolved that issue a while back and I DO trust Zondra… as a matter of fact, she was one of your bridesmaids. Anyway, Amy came to me from the NSA. General Beckman recommended her. Her name is Captain Victoria Dunwoody, well Major now. She and another NSA agent had actually been Intersects for a while, but couldn't handle it. The NSA ended their project before any permanent damage was done to her or her partner, but not before she caused a nuclear bomb to activate almost destroying LA. A bomb that we had to disarm. General Beckman said that Vicky wanted to try to make amends so I took her on."

"So this whole thing was a setup? You were all just play acting to make me feel like a spy again?"

"NO! Absolutely not. Remember that hole in your shoulder? No, the only thing I setup was the best possible team I could put together. Your MAR team, backed up by Team Bartowski… that is, Foxfire… did some very impressive work. General Beckman was HIGHLY pleased. She said the brass at both the CIA and the NSA keep trying to find out all they could about the team mainly because of the incredible success it… we… were having. None of them even suspected we were an intersect based team. Fortunately we had some extremely high level support. The only ones in the know were, Beckman, the CIA Director and the Director of National Intelligence. Man, are they going to be pissed when they find out it's all over."

"Wait… you can get me out of the CIA just like that?"

"Actually, you were never back in the CIA. You were, and are, an employee of Orion Industries acting as a contractor to the CIA. The contract has a clause allowing me to end the whole thing on a week notice. With you on convalesce leave due to injuries sustained on a mission, it'll be way more than a week before the team is ready again, so the contract is done. Matter of fact, I already let General Beckman know."

"Wait…? Orion Industries? What's that?"

"Well Carmichael was my code name from the CIA, and our private espionage company, so using it as a company name didn't seem like a good idea. I renamed the company Orion Industries after my father and… um… kind of erased all mention of Carmichael Industries. Now off to bed with you. That room is yours."

"Your father? Orion was your father? Wait… what do you mean mine? Isn't it ours?"

"Well… I mean you barely know me… I just thought…"

"Chuck… we're married… I love you. I know intellectually all about our life together. I know how wonderful a man you are and how much you loved me… love me. I know all about our life and our plans for the future. I also know how much Sarah Bartowski loved you right back. Well I think I do anyway. When I went back to being Agent Walker… well frankly it scared me. The intensity was too much. You loved me too much. But these last months away from you… I didn't realize how miserable I was until just the last couple of days. Chuck, I love you. My head still doesn't remember much… bits and pieces here or there is all I get… but my heart, that feels it. I love you."

"I love you too… of course you know that. Anyway, this is OUR room. Get to bed. Ellie went to work, Casey is on the way in from Washington and I'll let everyone else know that you're back. We'll have a family dinner tomorrow night. Now go to sleep. Oh yeah… Welcome home."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry about this, but this is my first story so I'm getting used to the mechanics of the process. Thank you to all the reviewers. Just to let you know... I have 13 chapters of this written and ready. One chapter still needs work but I'm on it.

Chapter 2

With Sarah in bed, Chuck proceeded to apprise the family that she was back and that the MAR team was out of business. He contacted both Cole and Vicky, letting them know, thanking them for their service and issuing both an invitation to visit Orion Industries anytime they would like.

Sarah slept all day. Chuck woke her around 6:00 for dinner then she went right back to bed. Around 9:30 Chuck went in to check on her, standing in the doorway watching her sleep for just a moment. Satisfied she was really here and okay, he went to the bathroom to take a shower before bed. The heated water started to relax him, when suddenly his resolve broke, tears began to leak and very quickly he was slumped down in the shower sobbing uncontrollably. Sarah was back… she was home… she wasn't HIS Sarah yet but at least she was home and safe. His emotions ran away with him and he just sat and cried. He had to stay strong for her… but it was so HARD.

When Chuck went to bed around 10:00 she woke enough to see who it was, then wrapped herself around him. Even after she had gone back to sleep, Chuck was wrapped in her arms the whole night. While not exactly comfortable, he had not enjoyed a night's sleep so much in… well in six months. The next day Chuck served her breakfast in bed.

"Chuck, do you think there's anything we can do to get my memories back? I mean, if it doesn't happen I'm okay with that. I love you enough right now to… well I'm looking forward to making new memories with you. But if it's possible I'd like to get back what's been lost."

"Well nothing is sure… but we have a few things we want to try. Just try to relax and trust me… we'll do everything we can. I'm just so glad you're home that… nothing matters… I love you… you love me… that's enough."

They spent the entire day cuddling, watching TV and napping. Chuck got up around 4:00 to make dinner for the party, Sarah got up around 5:00 and the family started arriving around 6:00. Everyone was there. Ellie and Awesome, Morgan and Alex (evidently they were living together), Casey, and Mary. Chuck apologized that Emma and Molly couldn't make it, but he assured Sarah that they would be here for Thanksgiving, that having already been arraigned. Sarah was caught off guard by the comment, but before she could ask what he was talking about he was off doing something else. Sarah decided that this would be her first test in trusting Chuck. She trusted that he would explain everything later.

Sarah enjoyed herself tremendously, getting reacquainted with her friends… her family. These were people that knew her completely, what she was capable of, what she had done, who she was… and loved her unreservedly. Even after everything she had done to them, put them through, they still loved her. She had almost killed Chuck and he didn't give it a second thought. As far as any of them were concerned, there was nothing to forgive, because everything she had done was not her fault. Agent Walker, brainwashed by Quinn had done those things… not Sarah Bartowski. Sarah Bartowski was loved and cherished. Sarah had a hard time keeping he eyes dry most of the night. They all forgave her in an instant… now if she could just forgive herself.

As the night went on she began to pick up some slight tension. Each person at some point would go to Chuck and they would have an animated but whispered conversation. Chuck was shaking his head a lot.

Finally it came to a culmination. They had eaten and were sitting around talking and drinking, when Alex of all people, made a toast welcoming Sarah home. She seemed confident and self-assured, not what Sarah was expecting. Alex looked from person to person, like she was taking a vote. She got a nod from everyone except Chuck. Alex turned back to Sarah.

"Sarah, there is one piece of business we need to do tonight before we can proceed with bringing you fully into… well into the company and the family. We need you to take a test."

"I assume you mean a lie-detector test."

"Well we don't use a machine any longer but yes, it's a loyalty test. As I'm sure you've noticed, Chuck doesn't need it, but the rest of us… I'm sorry but we need to trust you 100% and given your history…"

"I understand. Let's do it."

Ellie came forward with a syringe. "We know you've been trained to withstand Pentothal, but trust me this drug is unbeatable. I wish we could do this in private, but everyone needs to hear."

"I understand." Sarah looked at Chuck, could see the tears forming in his eyes then felt the sting in her arm.

Twenty minutes later Sarah woke up lying on the couch in Chuck's arms with Ellie fussing over her… again.

"I don't remember anything… what happened?"

"Well first, you passed with flying colors. Outside of that, you don't remember anything? What about if I say Thailand."

"Thailand? What do you mean? I haven't been to Thailand in like eight years. Wait… I was in Thailand a couple of years ago… Chuck, you had disappeared… the Belgian had you and was trying to get the intersect from you. I um… kind of went… what did Morgan call it? Oh yes, he said I went all "Kill Bill" on them. We kidnapped that Thai official for intel and I fought my way through the jungles to get to you. Casey, you and Morgan were there too... you tracked me down… caught up to me. We got to Chuck just in time. How am I remembering this? None of this was in the mission report."

Ellie looked at Chuck with wonder and said "It worked… it really worked."

Chuck stroked Sarah's hair as he held her. "I figured that the intersect hid your memories, so it should be able to bring them back."

With a touch of panic Sarah sat up and said "You loaded the intersect into me?"

"No, not exactly… we used the same technology that removes the intersect to remove the blocks the intersect put on your memories. Your memories were never really gone, just blocked. It'll take some time and some work, but we'll get most, if not all, your memories back."

"But why the ruse about the loyalty test?"

Ellie said "Oh that was no ruse… we had to be sure. Then we could try this fix. Successful on both counts."

Sarah looked around the room and saw nothing but smiles and total acceptance. Her gaze landed on Chuck, mesmerized by his eyes, and she began to feel it, remembering why she had fought her way across the jungles of Thailand, the love, the need for this wonderful man. Suddenly all the love she had for Chuck, from both now and before, broke over her, almost like a flash. Her knees buckled and she collapsed back onto the couch. Chuck immediately had her in his arms holding her, cradling her, murmuring to her that it would be okay… he would NEVER let her go again. Her strength suddenly came rushing back and she pounced on the big nerd. She pushed him down on the couch, straddling him, and began kissing him, forcefully, pulling on him, running her hands up and down his body.

"Augggg… geez Walker… get a room." Giggles echoed across the room.

Suddenly remembering they were not alone, Sarah froze with her lips on Chucks.

"This is not over you big nerd."

Chucks smile wrenched at her heart. "God I hope not."

She looked up to a sea of smiling faces and watery eyes. Was Casey crying? When she looked at Alex she got a nod, then Alex approached.

"Sarah, I'm… we… are sorry we had to do that but we had to be sure that the person heading up the company was totally loyal."

"Heading up the company? What are you talking about, Alex. You're the president."

"I'm the company president, yes, and will remain the president, but acting under the CEO's instructions. It was always intended that you be the CEO. Chuck heads up the cyber side, Dad handles the field stuff, and I handle all the office stuff, but we need a CEO… that's you."

"But… I've been out of touch… you can't possibly want…" Looking around she could see it. Chuck was their leader, he made the plans, saw the future, the logic, the intersect… but they needed someone to actually run the operation. That was Sarah.

"Okay, but it's going to take a while for me to come up to speed."

Everyone smiled and Chuck said "That's not going to be an issue. Ellie, you want to bring her up to speed on what our intersect team has been doing?"

"Sure. As all of us know, the Intersect Project as set up by the CIA/NSA was a failure. Chuck was the only successful intersect, no one else they tried could handle it. The agencies have closed out the project, destroyed all the equipment, and put all the data in high security archives. All the enemy organizations trying to copy the intersect are defeated, destroyed. Anyone who knew about the project is now convinced that it was a failure and has been closed out.

Now, what everyone here, except Sarah, knows, is that Orion Industries has continued to work on the intersect. Chuck and I, along with a few others, using our Dad's research as a start… and we have all his notes, not just the ones the government had… have made real progress, and we can now announce that we are ready for… well I was going to say human trails… but we're way beyond that and it's ready for general use. We've done a number of things to stabilize the intersect. The major thing we have done is reformat the data we are loading. The original intersect was written by an engineer not a neurologist, so the format was not completely compatible with the human brain. We've fixed that. The data comes into the hosts mind now so smoothly that you can't really call it a flash… it's just there, to the point where mostly it just going to feel like any other memory.

Chuck has gone a long way at cleaning up the programming. He's much better trained and much more experienced than our Dad was in computer programming, so the code is much better and the encoding process is MUCH faster and easier. Also, we now have a reliable test to tell us how much data any particular person can handle… what we call the retention capacity. This was another major issue with the original intersect… trying to jamb too much data into an individual's head. Plus, Chuck has managed to not only duplicate Dad's work on the governor but improve on it. The intersect information will be retained longer in our version, and if reinforced will become a part of permanent memory. If you load the data then run through a skill a couple of times, it will imprint the knowledge into long term memory."

"We realized that not everyone could take the entire intersect… as a matter of fact, we think that very, very few people will ever be able to take the entire intersect. As I said, that was a major issue with it, trying to shove too much data into someone's head. Realizing that, we have broken the intersect data into categories and segments. We give the individual an intersect test, then build a load that matches his or her capacity and needs… that's the idea anyway."

"One of the things we have learned during our work on the intersect is how it operates in the human brain. Because of this, we have learned that another issue with the original intersect was what was trying to be done with it. Skills are no problem… for the intersect that is very rote and takes relatively small amounts of storage and 'processing power'. Recognition… ID's of individuals or equipment takes a little more storage but isn't any more taxing on the brain. Data integration and analysis… that's the big issue… and is why only Chuck survived the intersect version 1. Not only does it require huge amounts of data, but the individual needs to be incredibly intelligent. That's where the CIA and NSA ran into problems. They were trying to use spy's to host the intersect, brawn shall we say, when what they really needed was brains. That's where the governor comes into play, keeping the brain from being overwhelmed."

"We have been using what we call the "Intest" to measure storage capacity and brain power, to form a base line. The test scales from 0 to 10; 0 meaning the individual has no capacity to take the intersect, and 10 being an individual who can take all of the current intersect data and more. Actually, anyone above a 7.5 can take the entire current intersect and operate it effectively. We have tried to test a good cross section of people, but our data sample is still pretty limited. Outside of Chuck, the highest score is mine at 9.6. It seems Dad designed the original intersect around the Bartowski brain, so our bloodline will probably always be the most effective intersects. Also, it is looking like power is relatable to IQ and education. I managed to get some tests done at a Mensa meeting and the data correlates. Just a high IQ or just higher education, does not predict a high intest score, while both together do."

"So given all of that; reformatting, reprogramming, determination of capacity, the break down of the intersect into manageable groupings and the governor, the intersect is now both safe and reliable."

Chuck picks up the briefing at this point. "Our big question now is, what do we do with it? Orion Industries now has the only safe, workable intersect on the planet. From what Ellie and I can see, given some of the dead ends we went down following Dad's original research… oh… and some apparently intentional misdirection's on his part… no one is likely to duplicate our work; not for a while anyway, even if they had Dad's original research. So what do we do now? We all have pretty much agreed that Orion will be a security company, specializing in cyber and physical security. None of us particularly want to go back into the field to get shot at. Now, having said that, a field team made up of Sarah, John and myself, with Morgan and Mom in the van as backup would be pretty formidable with us all maxed out with the intersect. But if we do that, do we stay a private company, return to the CIA/NSA or sub-contract to them? I believe this technology needs to be used, but how? Do we keep it a secret; offer it back to the government… what?"

Sarah looked around the room. Well… they wanted her as the boss so what the hell. "Given the history of the government agencies at keeping this tech out of the hands of the bad guys, I think we should keep it to ourselves. However, I do think we need to make it available to the various agencies of the US Intelligence Community, such as the CIA, DEA, NSA, as well as certain foreign agencies like MI6, DSGE, etc. What if Carmichael Industries… I'm sorry, Orion Industries… added another division, a training division. We offer special training to the various intelligence agencies. We don't tell anyone what the training is, or who is doing it. We contact Beckman, keep the whole thing on the hush-hush and offer to create agents with "advanced" training. We can call it Phase Three training or something like that. Chuck, Ellie… can you put something into the loads that will keep anyone from talking about their 'training' except to us?"

Chuck looked to Ellie who thought for a moment… the two conferred silently then Ellie replied. "I don't see why not. I think I can even make it so the agent would go comatose if tortured for the information."

"So we create a group of agents around the world that even the agencies they are working for don't know have the intersect. We can put something in the contract forbidding questions about our training methods. Let's think about it for a while. I'm going to need some time to get my memories back anyway. In the meantime, we can talk to each other and try to figure this thing out."

Everyone went back to talking amongst themselves and Sarah went over to Chuck. He kissed her when she came up to him, wrapping her in his arms.

"I'm sorry about the test and all. You've been out of the loop for so long and we couldn't account for all of your time and …"

"Chuck, stop. Enough. I understand. Taking me back into the fold is a big step, but it was worth it. I love you. Oh, how I love you. I can both feel it and remember it now. But Chuck… I also remember guilt… why I went Kill-Bill on Morgan and Casey… why I had to get you back. It was my fault the Belgian had you. I didn't tell you… I wasn't honest with you… I didn't make sure you knew… I loved you with or without the intersect."

"I know, babe. It was my insecurities that made me go after the intersect so hard. I couldn't believe that an incredible woman like Sarah Walker would really be attracted to a nerd like me without the intersect… or that I actually could be an agent without it."

"Chuck, from now on… no lies… no secrets… nothing held back… I promise, I'll tell you everything. Can you do the same? Look who I'm asking to talk about his feelings? Of course you can! Casey will get a big kick out of this one."

The two stood holding each other, while the others members of the extended family tactfully respected their privacy.

Sarah broke the hug to pull back and look at Chucks face. " Um… did I… did I say anything… um… you know… when I was under the drugs… did I say… well you know what I mean?"

"Not really. Well… a little. One of the main effects of the drug we used is that the subject won't shut up. Getting you to talk wasn't a problem… getting you to talk about the stuff we wanted you to talk about was what took most of the time. You um… wanted to talk about exactly what you were going to do to me after your shoulder and ribs heal. It was pretty risqué, to say nothing of graphic… but outside of that…"

Sarah gasped "I didn't! Oh… with Elllie and Awesome, Alex and everybody listening? YOUR MOTHER HEARD THAT? How am I ever going to live this down?"

"Hey… my mother has heard a lot worse than that!"

"Yeah… but not from her daughter-in-law!"

Seeing the pair actually talking instead of gazing at each other all googly eyed, Casey approached, and totally out of character hugged Sarah. "Welcome back Walker… sorry, welcome back Sarah. I still don't know what you see in this dork, but I'm glad you see it again… um… anyway, welcome home."

"Thank you John." Suddenly Sarah gasped, staring at Casey. "You walked me down the aisle… at our wedding! You came to the door… at the room in the church… you were all shy…" tears ran down Sarah's face and she quietly sniffled, hugging Casey fiercely.

"Hhhnnn… oh sure… that you remember. Ugh… lady feelings. Well you had just gotten out of the hospital the day before, and I thought you might need someone to lean on walking down the aisle and we are partners. Anyway… it was one of the proudest days of my life… good practice for when Alex… you know."

The original Team Bartowski stood in silence for a moment, till Casey kind of took them both in a hug, then started to turn away. "Oh, Sarah… nice mouth by the way."

Sarah turned a light shade of red and buried her face in Chucks chest as he silently giggled. She was laughing in joy and crying in embarrassment at the same time.

Ellie came over at that point with Mary in tow. One look at Sarah and she smacked Chuck in the shoulder. "You told her already? Some caring husband you are! Sarah, don't worry about it, honey. It was pretty graphic, but actually kind of sweet. More than anything, that was what convinced most of us that you really love Chuck again and had come back to us. Actually, it was only slightly more embarrassing than that episode I had when I got dosed with Pentothal and told you how big I thought your… um… you were."

Mary took Sarah by the hands. "Sarah… don't give it a thought. I'm glad you love Chuck so much, and plan on… ummm, let's say taking care of him."

Sarah's face got even redder, but she smiled at Chuck's family… her family.

Laughing, Chuck cut in. "Enough… enough. As much fun as it is to see Sarah squirm and get all embarrassed and such, you guys all need to get out of here and she needs to go back to bed… to sleep… get out you bunch of perverts."

Snickering and giggling, everyone began leaving. Devon came up to Sarah and offered a High Five. When she accepted he gave his normal "Awesome". Sarah found out that no one had all that far to go. Orion Industries owned the building and for security purposes everyone had an apartment in it. After everyone had left and Chuck had cleaned up some, they sat on the couch.

"I have a couple of questions for you. First off… you've met my Mother? How did that happen?"

"I told you… that night on the beach! Didn't I? Well wasn't it in the video log you kept?"

"NO! I had stopped recording it by then, I guess. So how?"

"Think about it… you'll remember… you killed Ryker."

"Oh my God… Ryker found out the baby was still alive and that my mother had her. He went after her… you and I and Casey, we… I sent Mom a signal to come to the apartment. We went to her house… I killed the bastard. Oh mom…. Chuck does she know what happened? Have you told her? What does she think, my not having called her for all this time?"

"Sarah calm down. She and I speak regularly. She knows something happened to you but that you're okay. Calm down… think about something else. You said you had a couple of questions?"

Calming down Sarah saw the truth in Chucks face… she could trust him…. She had to trust him. "Okay… um… Ellie said that her intest score was the highest you guys had outside of yours. What was yours?"

"Well, to tell the truth… we're not sure. My score was off the scale… way off the scale. The nearest Ellie can figure is 20 to 25."

"Is that scale linear?"

"No… it's logarithmic."

"WHAT? That's impossible. I mean I know you're special, but come on."

"Hey… I'm just telling you what Ellie said. As she said, we think that Dad designed the intersect around the Bartowski brain, specifically my brain."

"So, what have you and Ellie planned for the rest of us?"

"Nothing at this point. Oh, we have almost all the material for downloads ready and a lot of the encoding is done. I managed to get the original intersect files and data and we started with that. Casey has been putting together Tactical Training segments for a while and we have action loads ready, all the combat skills, gymnastics, parkour, explosives, field craft, stuff like that… plus science segments… medical… physics… chemistry… and data, tons and tons of intelligence data… but no one except me has been loaded. Well Ellie and me. For you personally, we're not going to load anything for a while. Ellie want's you to get as much of your memory back as possible first, then give you some time to stabilize. Then we'll give you an intest and talk about what you want to load."

"Speaking of memories, how do we do this? How do I go about getting mine back? Start at the beginning or pick and choose?"

"Well, I think there are three periods that we should do first, then all the rest we should do in chronological order, if that's all right? But before we do that I have some things for you."

Chuck left the room heading for the bedroom. He was back quickly and sat next to Sarah.

"First, I gave you this." Chuck opened a felt bag and took out a beautiful charm bracelet.

"Oh Chuck… your mother's charm bracelet. You gave me this when we were being held hostage in the Buymore. I said you should be giving this to a real girlfriend."

"And I agreed with you. What I didn't say, was that was why I was giving it to you."

"That was the night I killed Mauser."

"Yeah… and I saw you do it. Shot him in cold blood. Then when I asked about him you lied. I was so confused. I watched you just shoot a man down without batting an eye. I know now why you did it, but at the time it really did a number on me, mostly because you lied to me. I figured you must have had a good reason for killing him… but you lied to me."

"Okay… on a happier note, the next important thing I gave you was this." Chuck pulled out a red box, opened it and presented Sarah with her engagement ring.

"Oh Chuck. The night Clara was born." After Chuck put it on her finger they sat and savored the moment.

"And finally this." Chuck took a chain from around his neck and took Sarah's wedding band from it, slipping it on her finger. "We'll talk about this another time."

"Whatever you think. Um… I really want to get you in bed, not that we can do all that much yet… but I also REALLY want to get started with memories. Can we start now? I'm not tired and it's pretty early. How long to do all three?"

"Too long for one night, but the first is the longest, and by far the most… well the hardest, the most emotional. Ready? Okay… we first met Daniel Shaw when Awesome was mistaken for a spy…."

Two hours latter "… I remember the café, then Shaw walking me onto the bridge… he was going to kill me… if you and I hadn't gotten together I might have ended up with him… we spent a LOT of time together in DC… and he was going to kill me. Wait… you yelled… you tried to talk Shaw out of it… he raised his gun… you shot him. The next thing I remember is the hotel room. You told me Shaw was dead and apologized for shooting him, like it was your fault. You saved me!"

After a long kiss and some cuddling, Chuck asked "Do you remember what we did next… the train?"

"OH… the train. Where were we going… Switzerland wasn't it? Doesn't matter… we spent days in that compartment, never went out, even to eat, had all our meals delivered. Oh that was wonderful… that was when I found out how great a lover you are. That was a great honeymoon. OH… our honeymoon… now that was GREAT."

"Don't get ahead of yourself. Remember what else happened on the train?"

"Yeah, I remember. We made fools out of ourselves with that Basque terrorist who had already turned himself in to Interpol. Fortunately we were able to help Casey capture the terrorist cell that came to kill him, to kind of redeem ourselves. General Beckman was not pleased with us, especially after we told her that we were we. But then we got to tell Ellie before she left… that was kind of nice."

They sat for a while, kind of savoring the memory of the rest of that night. Suddenly Sarah's eyes began to tear up. "Sarah… what's wrong?"

"Oh Chuck… I went to DC with Shaw… I was so mad at you. He asked me if I loved you and I said not any more… that you weren't the same man I fell in love with. After your red test, you were so… it didn't seem to bother you. You just killed a man and it was like any other day. I thought you had changed, that you weren't MY Chuck any more. Then we came back and you seemed like the same old Chuck. You kept telling me that the red test wasn't what it seemed, you asked me to trust you… I couldn't do it. But you were the same Chuck… MY Chuck… I was so confused. Then you told me you loved me and asked me to run away with you… to trust you. I don't think I ever told you, but I was packing to go with you when Casey came over and told me that he killed the mole… that you couldn't do you. I was so happy… I knew I would trust you for the rest of my life. Oh Chuck I love you so much."

The kiss this time was damn near the welcome home kiss… the Wesley / Buttercup kiss. Finally "Time for you to hit the rack. Go to bed… I'll be there in a while. No… we can't do anything yet… you are still healing. Go to sleep."

With a giggle and a faux pout, Sarah headed for the bedroom as Chuck went to the kitchen and cleaned a little, giving Sarah time to settle in. Quietly he went out the apartment door and lightly taped on Ellie's door. Ellie immediately answered, like she's been waiting.

"Well?"

Chuck wrapped her in a patented Bartowski hug. "Thank you sis, you did it. We just stepped through the whole Daniel Shaw story and she remembered it all, the bad parts, the good parts, all of it. More importantly, she remembers her feelings. Looks like she'll get most everything back. And she's changing… I can feel it… hear it in her voice… see it in her eyes. The Sarah she was with me is coming back."

With tears in her eyes Ellie hugged her brother back… hard. "Well you know… she's not just coming back to you… she was like a sister to me and my best friend. I'm just as happy as you that she's back. Well maybe not JUST as happy as you… anyway it was both of us and the team who did it."

"Well… thanks anyway. Now go to bed."

With a final hug and a kiss, the pair went to their respective spouses, for the first time in six months.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks to everyone who left a review. As I have mentioned I have this story pretty much finished with thirteen chapters. One of the chapters needs more work, but the rest are complete. From some of your comments I see interest, and would not be adverse to someone writing a one-shot concerning what exactly Sarah said under the influence of the drug. I do not own Chuck and do not have any rights.

Chapter 3

Sarah had come home on a Wednesday and the family dinner had been Thursday night. Friday the pair got up late and decided to stay in one more day. However, Sarah had one important call to make.

"Mom? It's Sarah."

"Oh god… Sarah! Are you all right? What happened… where are you… are you okay?"

"Mom… mom… calm down. I'm okay now. I'm home… with Chuck. Everything will be fine. I just wanted to hear your voice again… I missed you so much."

"I know Baby girl. But if you're home with Chuck I know everything will be all right."

"Mom… you really like him don't you? Chuck?"

"Like him? I love him… he's my son… he taught you how to love… gave you a life. Why? Are you having doubts?"

"No…no. It's just that I'm just getting to know him again. He's so wonderful and kind and forgiving. I guess I'm just having trouble believing that… well that we are really together. Um… I'm not sure I deserve him."

"Oh baby girl… you deserve him… and you need him. He is exactly what you need. After all the lies and deceit, all the evil… and that was just your father... then your work with the CIA… Chuck is exactly what you need. Honesty, kindness, forgiveness… love."

"Thanks Mom. Um, Chuck said you're coming up for Thanksgiving. I'll see you then, okay? Bye."

"Goodbye my baby girl."

Tears streaming down her face she looked over at Chuck... the man who has saved her so many times… and is now saving her again. Brushing away the tears before he could see them, she smiled as he turned to face her. With a sob she slid into his embrace. So much for not letting him see the tears.

They spent the morning reliving the various proposals Chuck had tried to pull off… the restaurant… the balcony… the cell after Sarah had been 'arrested'… and finally at the hospital as Ellie gave birth. The cell was kind of a downer, but the others were all either funny or poignant, so they spent a lot of time giggling and cuddling. Sarah told Chuck the story of Morgan becoming a 'double agent' to make the balcony proposal happen… there was a lot of laughing and giggling on that one. Chuck had never known that he had dropped the ring.

After lunch they did the wedding. That one Chuck wanted to really savior so they described it to each other all afternoon… what happened, who was there, the family, friends, the feelings, everything… starting with the rehearsal dinner… Mary's toast… Sarah collapsing… Chuck finally getting the antidote… the wedding itself… Casey walking her down the aisle… right down to Morgan ending up as the driver and his last '… as you wish.' They capped it off with their honeymoon.

After all that, they decided to go out for dinner. There was a restaurant four doors down from their building that Chuck frequented. Sarah asked if he wanted to go somewhere different instead of the same old place. He hemmed and hawed, but finally admitted to Sarah that he wanted to show her off. Sarah asked if they needed a reservation. Chuck got a pensive look and said no, he didn't think so.

Sarah was crushed into his side as they left the building, eyes barely open. The night was cool but comfortable and very refreshing as they walked down the street. Walking in the front door of Marco's Restaurant, they entered the waiting area which was more than half full and shucked off their coats, handing them off to coat check. Sarah was fully prepared for a long wait but the hostess saw Chuck as they entered and nodded at him. Chuck waved Sarah forward to the hostess desk. The hostess immediately escorted them in to a table… a rather good one at that.

"Good evening Mr. Bartowski… Susan will be serving you tonight." Looking at Sarah the hostess smiled "It is wonderful that you will be dining with company this evening."

After the hostess left… "What was that all about?"

"I don't know what you mean?"

"The hostess… she acted like… I don't know… like you were an old friend or something. No reservation and we walked right in?"

"Oh they're just very friendly here."

"Right…."

Before Sarah could get anything else out, a slinky brunette waitress sidled up to the table. Sarah bristled at the way she looked at Chuck. Brunettes… why was it always the brunettes.

"Good evening Mr. B. I see you're breaking our no dating rule… and a blonde at that!" Susan looked from Chuck to Sarah and back waiting. Sarah realized the waitress was jealous.

"Susan… behave. I made you a promise, didn't I? Susan, this is my WIFE Sarah."

The waitress's attitude changed in less than a second. "Oh my god… really sir? Some of the girls will be so upset, but I think it's wonderful… all this time we finally… I mean it's so nice to meet you… oh, she's just as beautiful as you've said…"

She would have gone on… probably for the whole night, but Chuck gently cut her off. "Susan… Susan! Would you please bring us my usual appetizer for two and my regular wine?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Mr. B. Of course sir… right away. Your wife… imagine that!"

Susan slipped away, glancing back over her shoulder at Sarah every chance she got. Sarah laughed as she looked at Chuck. "Well?"

"What?" Chuck tried for an innocent look, which failed completely when he broke down in laughter.

"Okay… okay! Well I told you I wanted to show you off. I've been coming here since we all moved from Burbank, and the wait staff have kind of become interested, that's all. See when the girls started hitting on me, I showed them my ring, told them I was married, and terribly in love, but that my wife had a long term assignment out of the country and that we didn't get to see each other all that often. I think half of them thought I was making you up, just to get them off my back. The other half thought it was tragically romantic."

"Since when did you notice girls hitting on you? Usually you are oblivious to women trying to get you to ask them out."

"Oh, you're right. I didn't notice. But after Devon, John and Morgan all told me, and then all the girls gushing over Ellie being my Sister, they convinced me."

The wine arrived promptly followed quickly by the appetizer. As they progressed through dinner Sarah couldn't help but notice that the entire wait staff, women and men, were staring at them and whispering to each other. They seemed to be the talk of the restaurant; however Sarah didn't care and enjoyed herself tremendously. The service was incredible, extremely friendly and very prompt; the food delectable and the ambiance delightful. The owner, Marco, stopped to say hello, as did most of the wait staff at one time or another. Chuck being Chuck, he knew all the wait staff by name and their story. As they were enjoying after dinner cordials, the hostess come to the table.

"Mr. Bartowski… there is a phone call for you, sir."

Sarah looked at him questioningly. In the day of cell phones why would anyone call a restaurant on a land line to find someone?

"Sorry, let me go take this. There is a cell phone blocker on this whole place, to maintain the atmosphere, but the office knows I'm often here for dinner."

As Chuck left Susan hurried to the table. "Mrs. Bartowski? I just wanted to tell you how glad we all are that you're home and hope your stay is permanent. Mr. B. is such a nice man, everyone in the place adores him, but he always seems so lonely when he comes in. I mean he doesn't always dine alone, but even when that big man comes in with him, or his sister, or Morgan, Mr. B. seems so lonely, like he was missing someone… missing you, obviously. It's really nice to see him smile… a real ear to ear smile like he's doing tonight. He doesn't seem to do that nearly enough. Well… I just wanted to say we're glad… and welcome home."

Sarah got all teary-eyed and when Chuck came back he could see she was upset. He knelt down next to her and took her hand, so he could ask if she were okay, quietly, without making a fuss. On one knee next to her it must have looked awfully romantic to… well everyone. Chuck could hear the "Awwwww" from everyone around him, but he didn't care… all that mattered was Sarah.

After Sarah assured Chuck that she was okay, they rose and left. The looks from the staff cemented the last reservation that Sarah had about Chuck. The doubts she had told her mother about… could anyone be as nice a human being as her memories told her Chuck was… nobody could be that nice, that trusting, that likable, or that good… but evidently he was. All her memories said he was… his family and friends all seemed to believe it… her mom said the same thing. Looking around the restaurant it was obvious that even perfect strangers thought so. What did she ever do to deserve him?

Sniffling back tears, Sarah snuggled into Chuck's side as they walked down the sidewalk. Suddenly she remembered the phone call.

"Say… what was the phone call about?"

"A cyber attack against one of our clients. We'll stop in on the way up to the apartment to acknowledge the troops but they pretty much have it wrapped up."

They entered the lobby of their building but instead of going to the elevator they went to a door Sarah hadn't even noticed before. She had only been in the lobby area once, on Wednesday, and that day she was tired, preoccupied and not very observant. She looked around now and her experienced eye picked out the security the building had.

"Chuck? What's going on? I thought this was an apartment building. Wednesday, when I came to see Ellie… how in the world did I get in? I can see now that the security here is better than most government installations… it's like Fort Knox. They only way I could have gotten in, was if they were expecting me. But that means… where were you when I got here? Now that I think about, Ellie was stalling."

Laughing Chuck said "I was wondering how long it was going to take… and I had it pegged too… I figured the first time you came into the lobby with a clear head you'd see it. Okay, let's check out the cyber attack then we'll go up to our apartment and I'll explain the whole thing."

The door they went through… after retinal check, palm scan and voice confirmation… went into the area behind the lobby and to another elevator. They went to the third floor and were directed by a Security Tech to situation room 2. They went into the gallery of sitroom 2 and sat to watch. Sarah was mildly surprised at the number of people in the gallery, this late on a Friday night. They looked out over a room with four work stations, facing four huge flat screens, mounted on the wall.

Chuck turned to one of the spectators, a rather young looking man who sat quietly, intent on the screens. "Mike… fill us in, please!"

"Oh… Mr. B. I didn't see you come in. Yes sir. About twenty minutes ago the monitoring programs picked up an attack on Ryland Technology. Someone was knocking on their firewall… knocking pretty hard. The alarm sounded and the response team assembled in less than a minute. As you can see, Frank has the primary seat and he figured out pretty fast that the firewall attack was a diversion. He had Wally handle the defense, George started the trace back, and Eddy checked for another attack. Sure enough, Eddy found an open line going in… either an inside job or a phish response. Either way they were in. Eddy and Frank got the second attack routed to the nonsense server and Eddy started another trace back. Should be getting results soon."

Sarah leaned over and whispered "I'm proud to say I understood most of that, but what is a nonsense server?"

"When we set up the cyber defense for a company we install a nonsense server. It is a computer on the company's network that literally has nonsense in its files. Encrypted nonsense… like nursery rhymes, lyrics from songs, audio files of the songs themselves, pictures of famous people, stuff like that. When an attack does penetrate, we shut down access to everything else and direct the penetration to the nonsense server. All they see are encrypted files with names like, Phoenix Project, or Project Ten. They usually are so busy vacuuming up what they assume are valuable files that they don't notice that we're zeroing in on them." Chuck motioned to the screens. "Like now. GOT HIM! Nice job ladies and gentlemen. Mike, please convey my thanks to Frank. Make sure he starts an investigation on where that open line came from and have him forward his after action report to myself and the CEO. "

"The CEO? Oh… Mrs. Bartowski. My apologies. I get so intent following the action… anyway, welcome. I'll be sure to inform Frank sir."

Chuck and Sarah left and headed back to the elevators taking the residential one to their floor.

"Okay give. What is this place? Everybody knows me… I walked through security that would question the President of the United States… what is happening here?"

"Calm down. First off, this is Orion Industries. The top floors are apartments; the rest is for the company. As to what is happening… well, Wednesday, as soon as you started making inquiries about me, I had the aircraft fueled and prepped. By the time you were escorted to the Assistant Director, Morgan and I were on our way to the airport, and in the air just in time to get the call from General Beckman, before she spoke to you. Unfortunately, you were too fast for me. You were on a flight to Chicago and taking off just as we were landing. We had to refuel and get back into the take off que. We were about an hour behind you. That was why Ellie was stalling. I called ahead and informed security in case you showed up, to get you in. We have a procedure for this, to cover instances when Ellie or Awesome have friends over. To anyone coming to visit, it's just another building with a doorman."

"As far as everybody knowing you, you actually are and have always been the company CEO. We had all agreed that if you didn't come back in two years, that we would buy out your share and I would move up to CEO."

Sarah got a little choked up again. "You all were willing to wait two years? Hey, what do you mean buy out?"

"Buy out! You own one fifth of the company!"

"What?"

"You, Casey and I each own a fifth. Ellie, Devon, Morgan, Alex and Mom share a fifth and the employees as a qroup share a fifth. So as a part owner and CEO, all the employee's know your name. The cybertechs and sectechs have a limited idea of where you've been and what you've been doing, but they all know your name. Tomorrow I'll introduce you to the building AI and give you the grand tour."

"Oh my god… an AI?"

"Um… yeah. You know we have several divisions. One I run… the cyber division. Casey runs the field division, and Alex runs the office. We haven't mentioned it yet but there is also a Science division, which I run with Ellie. All the intersect work falls under that division, but we also have a number of individuals working for us on various projects. You know one of them. Remember Manoosh Depaq? He has his PHD now and is working with Ellie and I on the Intersect Project. Yes, I know… last time we saw him he was on his way to a bunker. Ellie of all people, began working on him and he… well shall we say saw the error of his ways. I think he has a bit of a crush on Ellie. Anyway, she convinced the General to get him released to our custody and he has been a real asset.

Another member of Science division is a gentlemen we picked up from DARPA who is currently working on AI's. He got tired of Big Brother telling him what to work on and what to let go of, so he left DARPA. From what I understand there were some tense discussions about letting him go. No one was crazy about a mind as brilliant and fertile as his running around unsupervised. General Beckman somehow caught wind of the whole thing, so he ended up with us. DARPA continues his funding through us and we funnel back major items of his work to them. But some of his stuff doesn't go back to DARPA… like this AI. He asked we not send it in and we concurred."

"Is it really an artificial intelligence? I mean is it really conscious?"

"Seems to be. It passes all the tests, and some of the wacky stuff it does indicates that it… well she, has a real sense of humor. She identifies herself as a female. She's terribly protective and very nurturing. She even does counseling sessions when needed. I must admit that I've used her services a couple of times. Remember the mission in Germany when we lost one of the Tactical Team… I… um… I didn't handle that very well. I'd never lost anyone on a mission before and it hit me pretty hard… if you had been here, maybe… anyway she helped me through it."

"Wow… I mean… Wow. So I get to meet her tomorrow? What's her name?"

"Nope… no more questions. That's it for tonight. Off to bed with you. You're still recovering and need rest."

Sarah was well into her recovery. Her ribs were fine and shoulder or no, she decided that tonight was the night for her and Chuck to 'get reacquainted', physically. She finally was realizing what she had been missing for the past six months… friends, family, relationships and Chuck… mostly Chuck. Tonight was the first night in the rest of her life and she was planning on making up for lost time.

When Chuck went in to go to bed, Sarah was under the covers. Thinking she was asleep already, he quietly got ready then slipped into bed. When he reached over to cuddle her he realized she was nude. She rolled over to face him.

"Sarah… Sarah… no… no… you are still recovering."

"Fine… then be as gentle as you like."

As she rolled over on top of him, Chuck sighed and resigned himself to the inevitable. Wait… what the hell was he thinking… the most beautiful woman in the world was trying to make love to him and he was fighting it? He really is a nerd. That was pretty much the last coherent thought he had for the rest of the night.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Again thanks for the reviews. They show the level of interest in a story and help keep it going. Still no connection or ownership of Chuck... and still not making anything from this.

Chapter 4.

Saturday morning, they got an early start. Well, not too early. The previous night had been… exceptional. They talked after, agreeing that this was beyond sex… it was the physical demonstration of love. While Chuck was used to this, it was new to Sarah, until afterwards when memories of previous, um… 'encounters' began to surface. They loved a long… long… long… time, last night. Gently, but thoroughly. After a leisurely breakfast they started the tour.

"Okay… the physical layout of the building. First floor is the lobby and the public offices of Orion Industries. The receptionist is behind bullet resistant glass and the security station is on her right behind the mirror. There are two elevators. The one in the lobby can be controlled by the security station. You can call it from any of the floors but only the buttons for one, eight and nine work inside the elevator.

Second floor is mostly for the Security Technicians. Bunk room, bull pen, conference room, situation room, shooting range and equipment room. The building inspector almost had a fit when he first looked at the plans and it said 'Armory', so we changed it to equipment room. Also there are locker rooms, showers, sauna, steam room, and work out area for all employees. All employees are urged to exercise one hour a day, no matter what their job is. On paper we pay them for half and the other half is on their time. In fact, everyone is on salary. If they were hourly and we paid the employees for all the time they were in the building, we'd go broke. Right now we have twenty or so security technicians, sectechs. When not on assignment they are security for the building, with at least three on at all times. They also act as drivers and security teams. They were the tactical team that backed you up on the later MAR missions. We get them all Private Investigator licenses and technically, as a contractor to the CIA and NSA, everyone in the company is a federal officer, but we try not to use that in the states. When the sectechs are out checking the physical security of a client, they are just PI's doing a security check.

Last night you saw the third floor, cyberland. Two conference rooms, two situation rooms, computer room in the middle of the floor and the rest open with cubicles. My office is there also, next to the computer room. Right now we have fifteen cybertechs. Seven are qualified for the response team and three of those are qualified as first chair… well four counting me.

Fourth floor is rest and recreation. Kitchen is fully stocked and someone is always cooking or leaving prepared food in the warming dishes… Morgan finally got his pizza oven. TV area, home theater room, gaming area, large dining area; all the comforts of home, including a couple of bunk rooms for naps and sleep overs. The cybertechs spend a LOT of their off hours there. Most of the younger ones only go home to sleep and get fresh clothes.

Fifth floor is Science division. It has a fully stocked med bay… sometimes we don't want questions about wounds and injuries... Intersect lab, mechanical engineering lab, chem lab, bio lab, clean rooms, computers… just about anything needed. The original intersect was a computer system and I have been spending some of my time trying to recreate that. I'll see what I can do about finishing it up. You know about Dr. Robinson, our DARPA refugee. We also have Felix Jones, brilliant mechanical engineer. Wait till you see the virtual reality training facility he has set up for us. The sectech's use it all the time and it feels very real, almost a Star Trek holodeck.

Finally we have Castle II. Just like the one back in Burbank. Briefing rooms, armory, holding cells, situation room… everything. It actually takes up two floors. We don't use it much, now that we have only a limited connection to the Intelligence Community, but it's there if we need it. We used it for your MAR team missions. Above that are the apartments. Alex and Morgan have one on nine, with Casey in another. Ellie and Devon are across the hall from us on eight and Mom has one down the hall. Now let's go down to the lobby."

On the way down Sarah looked at Chuck in awe. "Where did you get the money for all this? Granted this is or will shortly be a money making operation, but the startup costs… building… hardware… staff. You didn't borrow it did you? Wait, you didn't steal it from a drug dealer or something?" Sarah knew how easy it was for agents to get their hands on illegal money from any number of sources.

Laughing Chuck shook his head. "No… no… nothing like that. With Decker dead, General Beckman was able to get our accounts unlocked. We got all the Volkoff money back. I used some of the money for College funds for Molly, Clara, the children of all our employees; I set up a trust to provide for the family of anyone we lose; and I took some of the money and set up a Philanthropic Fund to help in the case of man-made or natural disasters. "

"What… you mean like disaster relief?"

"Actually no. There are already a lot of organizations for that. What our fund does is make loans and grants to effected companies to get them back on their feet and get their employees back to work. We also work with local governments for infrastructure repairs."

Stepping off the elevator, Chuck leads Sarah across the lobby to a door on the left side of the receptionist. He stood still for a moment till a light flashed then he leaned forward and looked into a retinal scanner till the door popped open.

"We use multiple recognition techniques. Voice, facial, retinal, palm and DNA. You have to pass two at normal security points and three at high security points, and which technique used is random." Looking up Chuck said "New employee for registration."

A female voice answered "Good morning Mr. B. Please enter with the new employee." Chuck held the door open and stared at Sarah as she entered.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh nothing." Chuck glanced to his left, into the security office. "Morning Carl… quiet night?"

"Yes sir… even managed twenty winks."

"I'm sure you did. Have a nice day Carl." Chuck led Sarah into the inner office.

"What was that all about? Did he just admit to sleeping on duty?"

"Inside joke. Carl can sleep with his eyes open so you can never tell whether he's asleep or awake. It's creepy."

Walking into the inner office Chuck said "Sarah?"

Sarah turned to look at him, then heard a voice say "Yes Mr. B." That voice sounded familiar but she couldn't quite place it.

"Sarah, this is Sarah Lisa Walker Bartowski."

"Yes sir, I recognized her. Welcome Mrs. Bartowski, it's a pleasure to meet you. Um… Mr. B… this is going to get confusing."

"Yes… we'll deal with that in a moment. Please register Sarah Lisa Walker Bartowski, aka Sarah Walker, aka Mrs. B, aka Ms. W, aka Sarah, etc..."

"Yes sir. Mrs. B, please look at the camera… thank you… please turn to the left… thank you… the right… thank you. Please place your hand on the palm reader… thank you… now the other hand… thank you… please look into the retinal scanner… thank you… now the other eye… thank you… please read the screen…"

"Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow, and everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go."

"Thank you… now please swab the inside of your cheek… thank you. You are now registered… security level A1… position CEO… qualified field agent, rank of Lt. Colonel… wow… your CIA clearance is pretty high. Recognition code is Eagle, alpha, beta, 442." Suddenly the voice got very light, almost jolly. "Welcome to Orion Industries, sis. Wow, the prodigal daughter finally returns. You must really be happy Mr. B. Say this is going to get complicated..."

Sarah looked at Chuck and said "Sis?"

"Another inside joke. You still don't recognize her voice? Well they say most people can't recognize their own voice so I shouldn't be surprised. That's the inside joke. When Dr. Robinson and Felix first set her up, I was having a bad week… missing you. So Felix thought that hearing your voice would cheer me up. I was furious at first… almost ordered him to change it. But that would have hurt his feelings and to tell the truth, I got to kind of like it so we kept it. We didn't want to say she was your clone or doppelganger, so the joke is she's your sister. Sarah… profile change please."

"Yes Mr. B. Go ahead with profile change."

"Recognition code alpha, beta, alpha, 010. You will no longer respond to the name Sarah, your name hence forth is Rebecca. Please inform all employees of the change. Oh, and change voice to alternate 2."

"Yes Mr. B. Mrs. B? Do you concur?"

"Um… sure, why not?"

"Come on Mrs. B… you have to say it right."

"You have to say you concur and give your recognition code. She needs to have two A levels to make a profile change. You, Casey and I are the only A levels."

"Oh… okay. Yes Rebecca, I concur. Recognition Code eagle, alpha, beta, 442."

"Profile changed. Oh wow, I sound funny." The voice was suddenly a little deeper and the cadence changed slightly, taking on an almost New England accent. "Hey Mr. B… is Sarah still my sister?"

"Yes, Rebecca… yes she is."

"Cool… I don't want my family to get smaller. Now I have two sisters to talk to, a Mom, a brother-in-law and a niece." Suddenly the voice got… well the only way to say it is Rebecca's voice got sexy. "I guess this means all hope is lost for me and you, unh Chuck?"

"Yes Rebecca, I'm afraid it does. What does that make me now?"

"You're still a stud to me." She sighed… a real sigh. "But I guess I'll have to change your status to brother-in-law, since you're married to my sister Sarah… but then you're also my Mom's son, so you could be my brother? Whatever. You can never be my lover." Again the sigh. "Ah well. Maybe I can get John Casey to… um… never mind."

"Come on Sarah, I'll show you your office."

"Do we say good bye to Rebecca or something?"

"No… anytime you are in this building, Rebecca will be listening and watching. Just talk to her, she's always there."

"Aren't you afraid of being hacked… having someone take over the building or something?"

"Rebecca has no direct connection to the outside world. No internet connection, no wireless connection, she doesn't even have a USB port to plug into. Only audio and visual. If somehow someone did manage to make a connection, she would know it was unauthorized and take steps. She has certain defenses, including human like androids and dozens of maintenance mechs. The androids are her connection to the outside world. She uses them to surf the web, watch TV, sit in on meetings, stuff like that. They are her roving eyes and ears, and they are her connection to the regular computer systems. Wait till you see them type. Of course every corner of the building is covered by video and audio, so the androids are kind of unnecessary, but very fun. You can sit and have a conversation with her, with or without an android, but it's more… I don't know, it's kind of more satisfying to have the android in the room for you to talk to. You'll see. Ah… here's your office."

Whispering Sarah said "Um… she doesn't really think we're sisters does she?"

A whispered voice came from the ether "No Sarah. That's why it's an inside joke."

"Wow… she really does hear everything."

"Oh she sure does. And just so you know, she has a permanent request from me to shut down all visual pickups in all the apartment bedrooms whenever the occupants go to bed and to filter the audio. She is not a voyeur."

"Well not all the bedrooms, Mr. B."

"That's right. She monitors Baby Clara 24/7 and Molly when she's here. Between Rebecca, her droids and her mechs, a better babysitter could not be found."

Sarah looked around at her office. It was very impressive, to say nothing of being huge. An office set; desk, chair, credenza and book shelf sat in the far left corner. The right corner was a sitting area, two easy chairs facing a sofa, with a coffee table in between. A conference table with twelve chairs occupied the area just to the left as you entered with large flat screens on the walls around it. "Pretty impressive. I could just about land a helicopter in here."

"Yeah… personally I think we got carried away, but Alex set it up while the rest of us were on a MAR mission backing you up. She insists it impresses potential clients… and I must say that so far she seems to be right. Okay, your computer is on the desk, well actually it's built into the desk, login is sarahb and the password is intersect4. Rebecca will give you any help you need. I would recommend you catch up on your e-mails and start reading the various action reports from cyber, field and science. I'll be upstairs in cyberland for a while then Science. If you need me just say my name and Rebecca will connect you to me. We use the phones mostly to talk to the outside, but you can connect by phone to anyone in the building for a private conversation." With a kiss, Chuck was off.

Sarah prowled around her office, looking at this and that, before finally settling behind her desk. She logged into her screen and opened her e-mails. Before she could even start the first one, Rebecca interrupted her.

"Mrs. B. may we talk?"

"Certainly Rebecca… and by the way, when we're alone, you can call me Sarah."

Voice becoming noticeably lighter, Rebecca answered "Thank you Sarah, I appreciate that. I just wanted you to know, that all the joking aside, I am very happy you are home. Mr. B. is the nicest, most loving man I have met in my admittedly limited experience. It was hurtful to see him… well to see him in pain. Thank you for coming back, and if there is anything I can ever do for you, please… just ask."

"Um… Rebecca, I assume you record everything?"

"Pretty much, certainly anything with people or any kind of motion."

"Who has access to the recordings?"

"That depends on the recording. For example, the recording of this conversation is only accessible by you, except in the case of a security breach, in which case anyone on your security level could access it. That means Mr. B. or Colonel Casey."

"I see. So under normal circumstances, only you and I would ever see this."

"Yes… that's correct."

"That's good to know Rebecca… um, in case I ever need to talk, I can always talk to you."

"Yes, that's correct Sarah."

Sarah began reading her e-mails. She read the first ten and realized that she didn't remember a thing she had read.

"Rebecca? Was he really in pain?"

"I'm sorry Sarah, I shouldn't have said that. It's just that he missed you terribly. Even with his family around him, Ellie, Mary, Devon, even Morgan and Casey, I could see it in his face, his eyes… he just plain missed you. It was like part of him was missing, and he'd only be whole again if… when… um… well you know. When you were on missions was the worse. The last mission… when you were shot… he almost broke down… for several minutes I thought I was going to have to sedate him."

By this point Sarah was crying "Rebecca? How do I make this up to him? How do I prove I deserve him?"

"You have already started… just be the best person you can be."

Sarah thought about that for a good ten minutes. "Thank you Rebecca."

"Anytime Sis."

Sarah spent the morning and part of the afternoon going over reports, employee bio's, reading e-mails, getting up to speed on what Orion Industries was up to, who the clients were and how the company was doing financially, which actually seemed pretty good. As far as she could tell, except for the MAR team, they were totally out of the spy game. All the clients were private business or NGO, and Orion handled their security, both cyber and physical. They sub-contracted most of the physical security to Verbanski… the two companies worked very closely together. A number of the clients were recommendations from General Beckman. This was not surprising to Sarah… it was to everyone's advantage. The customer got top flight service, Orion Industries got clients and Beckman didn't have to worry about security with the customer using Orion.

Alex popped in and brought Sarah around to the first floor offices to meet the staff and Chuck showed up around noon to take her to lunch on the fourth floor. On the way up they stopped at the second floor so she could see where she would be working out, and meet the sectechs. After lunch they went up to Science to look around, before going back down to her office. Late in the afternoon, just as she was getting ready to call it a day, her monitor dinged with an incoming call. She saw the name of the caller on the screen and immediately accepted.

"Hello Sarah."

"Hello General Beckman." Sarah's voice was just a touch cool.

"I called to say welcome home. The last six months, while wildly successful mission wise, have been difficult for those of us… well those of us who were in on it. The months prior to your memory wipe, you and I had become friends and it was difficult seeing you… um… well anyway, welcome home."

Sarah visibly relaxed as the General spoke… her memories coming back of the diminutive General. "Thank you… I'm sorry it took so long, but… well anyway, thank you… for everything."

"Okay… enough chit chat. On to business. As the CEO of Orion Industries I need to talk to you. As I said, the last six month have been wildly successful mission-wise. Every mission the MAR team has been on was successful. Only one other team has had that level of success. The CIA Director, the Presidents Security Advisor and the DNI are all extremely unhappy with losing the team. They would like to talk to Orion about reestablishing the team on an even broader scale. We also have had queries from our overseas peers about the team. They too are interested, and want to discuss establishing a MAR team in Europe. Even our Asian counterparts have expressed some interest."

Sarah sat back for a moment thinking. "Let me get my management team together and we'll discuss it. We would have to be given permission to recruit from within the various agencies for the field agents. We would probably also use their own people for the tac teams and snipers."

"Not a problem, as long as you provide the training and leadership. As a matter of fact, most of the agencies would prefer using their own people for the field agents as well as the tactical teams."

"Excellent. Let me talk to Chuck and Casey and we'll get back to you. Anything else we need to discuss?"

"No, that about covers it."

"Okay. Um… Diane, Thanksgiving is in a couple of weeks. We would be honored if you would join us? If not for the day, possibly the day after?"

"I appreciate that Sarah. Are you sure it would be alright with Chuck and the rest?"

"Diane, you know you are always welcome."

"In that case, yes I would love to join you for Thanksgiving. Though flying on that Wednesday is going to be murder and I really don't want to use a military aircraft for a private trip."

"Let me see what we can do. I'm going to try to talk Chuck into taking some time off… in the Caribbean. If we go, we'll pick you up on the way back. If not, maybe we can rent you a plane to fly. I'll let you know."

Ending the call, Sarah asked Rebecca to have Chuck come down to her office when he was available. Chuck showed up some fifteen minutes later. Sarah stood as Chuck came in, intent on reviewing her conversation with General Beckman with him, but as soon as he walked in, one look at him, her stomach started doing flip flops, her knees got weak and she had to lean on her desk to stay on her feet. Chuck rushed over and wrapped her in an embrace. The two stood that way for a good ten minutes, her head on his chest and him murmuring nothings into her ears.

Finally she was able to construct a sentence. "Oh god Chuck, I missed you. Oh please don't ever let me go again."

"Never again… not ever… never ever… or whatever the adult version of never ever is."

Sarah giggled and said "Okay… business." They went over the conversation she had just had with General Beckman.

"What do you think? Did we make any money with the last contract? I know you did it to keep tabs on me."

"Um… well we MOSTLY did it to keep tabs on you… but it was pretty lucrative. Over the six months we made almost three million over and above costs. If they want us this bad, then we can probably hold them up for even more… especially the Europeans. The Asians will hold out for a while, couple of years probably, but once they see the results they'll cave too. This is exactly what you were talking about. We can use the intersect to 'train' the teams, using the best of each agency. Why don't you call a meeting of the entire management group for Monday morning so we can discuss it. In the mean time, you and I should go home and 'discuss' how many children we should have." Chuck shot her the Bartowski eyebrow dance.

Sarah smiled returning his look with a smirk. "Um… along those lines, what do you say to a little vacation. How about if next Friday, you and I take the company jet and find some nice secluded spot in the Caribbean to relax. If we fly back on Wednesday, we can stop in Washington and pick up Diane Beckman… I invited her to Thanksgiving."

"That's nice of you to invite Diane for Thanksgiving. She has no family and usually spends holidays alone."

"Well I had ulterior motives. We need to talk to her privately and this is a good cover."

"Ah… well it was nice of you anyway. Okay… next Friday… you, me, and the Caribbean. I'll take care of the arraignments. As it happens… I know just the place."

The pair retired to their apartment, where they spent the rest of the night and all day Sunday getting to know each other again and renewing Sarah's various memories. Part of the time it felt like a therapy session, and part of the time it was giggles and laughs. They both ended up sharing a lot about themselves to each other that they never had before.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Marc: Heinlein, um? I thought I was the only one old enough to remember him. Thanks. To other reviewers... thank you. Like most authors, engagement with readers is what keeps us going. As you might have noticed, I posted this chapter early. It's kind of short and I felt bad about that so posted it as an in between. There will be another chapter on Thursday as usual.

I don't own or have any rights to Chuck.

 **Chapter 5.**

Monday morning the entire team got together to discuss the offer to expand the MAR program. Sarah chaired the meeting in her office and everyone attended; Chuck, Casey, Ellie, Mary, Alex, and Morgan. Sarah personally invited Ellie to get her view on the training procedures. It was a pretty quick meeting.

"So everyone is in agreement. Under our training and leadership, we revive the MAR program using personnel from the various agencies. Ellie, do you really think you can hide the intersect training from them?"

"The Tactical Teams certainly. The knowledge transfer from the intersect to the host is so smooth now that to them it will just seem like any other memory. The agents, on the other hand, will definitely know something is going on when they do any kind of analysis or data integration. So, hide no, but we can set it up so they definitely will not be able to talk to anyone about the training."

"Okay… so the new teams will be the similar to our original MAR team. However, we plan on all of these teams being permanent, so they need to be over staffed to allow time off for individuals. I would say five field agents, twenty tac team troupers and ten scout/snipers per team.

A deployed team will be two or three field agents as the point team for recon, intelligence and direct action. Three two person sniper/overwatch teams and a twelve person tac team backs them up. The snipers and tac team members will not know how the training is done and with the changes we have made there really will be no flashing… they will just know. Plus none of them will be able to talk about their training at all. The field agents will be conditioned to go catatonic if tortured for information. Casey, please finalize the downloads for the tac teams and the sniper teams. Mary and Morgan, you will work with Chuck and I on the downloads for the field agents, and the intelligence unit. Also, Chuck, we need to talk about gathering intelligence. We can make it part of the contract that the CIA, NSA, DIA, etc, share intel with us… but I would like some way for us to gather data ourselves. Oh and communications. How do we go about insuring our communications."

Chucks smile about split his face. "Got both of those issues covered. When Musk launched his satellites to set up his world wide internet WAN, we kind of piggybacked our own equipment on the satellites. It cost us a bundle but I think it will be worth it. We can pretty much monitor the planet, and communications will be available and secure anywhere in the world. For the intel analysis, I'll have to put on another half dozen or so people, and install a bunch more hardware, but cyber can handle it. I already have people trained and software written. We'll be up and running before we leave on vacation."

"I should have known. Chuck, you and Ellie also need to start getting the rest of us loaded with the intersect. At least what we can handle."

"Already started today. Casey is loaded with every hand-to-hand technique known to man, all the spycraft segments, weapons, explosives, fieldcraft, survival, everything he needs, even some medical. Casey also has an impressive array of intelligence covering the world. Mom's load is just as large and general right now, much lighter on the skills but heavier on intelligence. As we get MAR running again, she will be Foxfire, so her nightly loads will be very specific depending on missions going on the next couple of days, that might need help. Morgan, as her second, has mostly intelligence data loaded, with just the basic action load to allow him to get out of most any situation. His load will get specific also. Ellie, while capable of taking the entire intersect, has opted to just down load the science segments… all of them. Awesome is only a little behind her. I begged and pleaded and she finally relented and allowed the basic action segment to be added to her and Devon's load. Alex also has the basic action segment. The basic action segment is the lowest of the three action segments, the other two are standard and advanced. The tac teams, sniper teams and field agents will use the standard load for their permanent load. The advanced load is not effective without training, so will probably only be used on senior field agent's. And no, you do not get a load till we get back from vacation at the earliest."

Sarah could see Alex fidgeting, looking around a little anxiously. "Alex, I know you have a full work load in the office, but if you don't mind I would like you to start training to be Mary's number three. There will be many times that either Morgan or Mary will have to be in a van near the field agents and I would like you to be ready to assist if necessary. Okay?"

"Oh yeah… that would be great. Thanks Sarah."

"Fine… okay everyone… let's get started. Oh… one final thing. As another level of security, all contracts and payments will be to Carmichael Enterprises. Whenever we are deployed we are Carmichael Enterprises. Chuck, if you and Casey can stay we can call General Beckman right now to accept the offer and get started with the negotiations. Tony… please put a call through to General Beckman."

A deep male voice said "Yes Mrs. B."

Chuck snickered "I see you found the admin assistant program."

"Yup… you didn't even hide him that well."

"You asked Rebecca didn't you."

"Hey, you told me to ask her if I needed anything and I did… she's been a great help."

The computer chirped and the three turned to the huge monitor on the wall.

"Well… good morning Orion Industries. What can I do for you?"

"It's more like what we can do for you General Beckman. We're willing to talk about resuming the MAR program. What exactly were you thinking?"

Over an hour later, the details had been worked out.

Chuck looked over the final draft agreement. "This is quite an ambitious project General. Operational Teams in England, Washington D.C. and Arizona… a training/replacement team in California and a super team for backup here in Chicago. We do all the training and provide intelligence, command and control for all teams. All the teams will be made up of personnel from the various agencies, except the super team which we will staff, completely off the books. I take it the super team will be your ace in the hole."

"Yes… only the directors of the various agencies and myself as the project coordinator will know about it. I doubt it will be used more than once or twice a year. Also, if you do have to deploy, try to make it as clandestine as possible. I'd like to keep your team a secret as long as possible. All contracts and payments will refer to Carmichael Enterprises, and only I, the National Security Advisor and the Director of National Intelligence, will know the name Orion Industries."

"Wait, what about the President and Vice-President."

"They will know about the MAR project but no specifics concerning who is running it."

"And each team will have it's own transport on instant alert. A C-130 or some-such for the tac teams and an executive jet for the field agents to get in quick. We will be provided with two of each for the super team."

Casey chimed in "And don't forget all the 'special' weapons and equipment."

Beckman let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes… yes… yes. You'll get everything you want. I liked it a lot better when you people all worked for me. You drive a hard bargain. Colonel Casey, what in the world do you need heavy weapons for… light armored vehicles… and missiles… Giffins, Hellfires, Stingers, TOWs… I hope you're not planning on starting a war somewhere."

Chuck and Sarah both looked at Casey askew… "Hey… you never know what's going to happen. I'd rather have the stuff on hand and not need it than have to beg some supply officer for it when we're in a rush. Besides, we have to train with the stuff so we have to have it around."

"Well if there's nothing else you scoundrels are going to demand, I have to get this all ready to present to a joint committee made up of some VERY high level people."

"No… I think we've taken you for everything we could. Um… Diane? Still on for Thanksgivng?"

"Yes… I'll try to get a flight out on Wednesday."

"Don't bother. Chuck and I are going to spend a couple of days in the Caribbean. We'll pick you up on the way back… Wednesday afternoon."

"Great… now it REALLY looks like a junket from a contractor. Thanks a lot."

"Hey… what are friends for. Bye."

The three stood looking at each other and all began to smile… each for his or her own reason. Casey was getting all the toys he wanted to play with. Sarah had concluded a highly lucrative contract on her first deal as the CEO… and Chuck had Sarah home and she would only go back into the field with him as part of the MAR super team. Now if he could just get her pregnant before anything else happened…


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I'm not a big fan of angst. The whole WT/WT thing was a huge turnoff for me. I get that the character of Sarah had some major issues with repressed emotions, etc... but she was supposed to be a highly intelligent, competent adult, so she really should have recognized her own issues. I know, she was the strong silent type, but come on...

Anyway, still don't own Chuck or making any money off this.

Chapter 6.

The rest of the week was busy. None of the executive team even left the building except to eat, and Ellie and Devon going to work… except for one particular night. On Monday after the meeting and the phone call, Ellie came back into Sarah's office.

"Um… hi Ellie… come on in, have a seat." Sarah directed Ellie to the sitting area. Ellie sat on the couch and Sarah sat on one of the chairs.

"This is some office Sarah."

"Yeah… Chuck says that Alex set it up while everyone else was occupied. I think it's kind of over the top, but I have to agree with Alex about it impressing the clients."

The two sat in silence for a moment, Sarah clearly nervous. She just didn't know how to act around her sister-in-law. They had been close friends before, and Ellie had used the term sister a number of times, but Sarah was clearly apprehensive. How could Ellie forgive her for what she'd done.

"Sarah… I think we need a girl's night out. When was the last time you went out dancing?" Chuck didn't particularly like to dance, and neither did Ellie's husband Devon, so Ellie and Sarah used to have regular girl's night out to go dancing. Alex had even started to join them and whenever Carina or Zondra were in town they would come too.

"Um… are you sure Ellie? I mean… really? You want to?" Sarah thought she must be getting soft because her eyes were misting up again.

"Sarah… you were and are my best friend… and my sister. You are the woman I entrusted my brother to. So, yes, I'm sure. I'm off Thursday, do you have any meetings Thursday morning?"

"Um… well no."

"Okay… then Wednesday night we're going out dancing."

Sarah wanted to argue, but Ellie is like a force of nature when she gets something in her head. "Um… should we invite Alex?"

"No… let's keep this just you and I. I think we need this."

The next couple of days seemed to fly by and Sarah got increasingly nervous as Wednesday night hove into view. Late Wednesday afternoon found Sarah in the apartment bathroom getting ready. Chuck was in the living room getting ready for a guys night in.

"Chuck… I should cancel… what am I going to say to her… what are we going to talk about? Oh god… I've been in situations looking down the barrel of a gun that were less nerve racking than this."

"Babe… don't worry about it. Ellie loves you… always has… always will. Just relax."

"Chuck… I held a gun on her… I almost killed her brother. She's got to be at least a little upset about that!"

Chuck came into the bathroom and put his arms around Sarah. "Babe, that was a brainwashed Agent Walker did all those things. You are Sarah Bartowski… forgive yourself." Just then there was a knock on the door. Chuck spoke to the air "Rebecca? Who's at the door?"

Rebecca's voice dripped with derision. "Come on Chuck… you know perfectly well who is at the door… it's Ellie, Devon and Clara."

Even as nervous as she was, Sarah giggled. "I guess she told you, didn't she. Rebecca, please ask them in and tell them we'll be right out. Thanks!"

A couple of minutes later Chuck and Sarah come out and greeted everyone.

"So dude… movie… gaming? What do you think?"

"How about a little Call of Duty. Alex wants to spend some quality time with Casey so Morgan is coming over later."

"Awesome. Let me get Clara set and we can start."

Ellie turned to Sarah "Ready to go? The car is downstairs."

"Car?"

"Yeah… Casey is paranoid, Chuck too for that matter. They both insist we use a company car and a security team when we go out."

Sarah turned on Chuck. "Is that absolutely necessary?"

"Well, yeah… I mean after what happened with Quinn… at the very least, until we are certain all Fulcrum and Ring operatives are captured or neutralized, everyone travels with security. Plus you're going to be drinking, so I don't want either of you driving, that mean's cabs. Why pay for a cab when we have perfectly fine limo's in the garage."

"Yeah, but why should we ruin some poor guys night driving us around?"

Ellie cut in on that one. "Oh I took care of that. I asked Todd to drive us and he brought his girlfriend Anne."

"His girlfriend?"

"Yup… she is a security tech also. You have to understand Sarah… this isn't the CIA. Yes, we are a security firm but we are also a family company, so all our employees are pretty much family. Todd is a really nice guy and Anne is a hoot. We'll be fine. Have a great night boys, don't wait up… mama's on the town tonight." With that Ellie grabbed Sarah and hauled her along.

Before Sarah knew it, they were in front of a jazz club with a neon sign "Lose Your Blues" and Ellie was dragging her out of the car. "Todd, we won't be here more than a half hour, so you can come in or not, up to you. Don't worry, I'll text you before we come out so we don't surprise you and Anne."

They went inside and found a booth in the back. The place was dark and peaceful, with a three piece band playing smooth jazz. They got drinks than sat quietly for a moment.

"Sarah, I wanted to get us away from everyone so we could talk."

"Um… okay."

"Sarah, I know you've been upset with me and I want to ask if you can forgive me?"

Clearly confused, Sarah stared at Ellie "Forgive you? For what?"

"Sarah come on… the last time we saw each other before you left, I deliberately crashed a car with you in it."

"You were in it too!"

"Yes, but I was wearing a seatbelt, and I knew you weren't. I'm sorry, but I had to do it… can you ever forgive me?"

Sarah stared at Ellie for almost a minute. Sarah thought to herself "Is she serious? Does she really think I'm mad at her about that?"

Sarah couldn't look at the other woman, staring down at her hands. Very quietly Sarah said "Ellie, I was holding a gun on you. I could very easily have made Devon a widower and taken away Clara's mother." Tears ran down Sarah's face as she slowly looked up at Ellie.

"Sarah honey… you have to forgive yourself. That was Sarah Walker… a brainwashed Sarah Walker… you are Sarah Bartowski. Forgive yourself… we all have… now it's your turn."

Sniffling, Sarah stared at her best friend. "My god and I thought Chuck was nice. At least I'm sleeping with him!"

The pair laughed through the tears then Ellie slid around and wrapped Sarah in a Bartowski hug. They stayed that way for several minutes. Pulling away Sarah looked at her sister and murmured "Thank you!"

Wiping tears they just sat for a moment. "Now… can we please go out and have some fun? I haven't had a girl's night out since you left. Alex is okay but not nearly as much fun as you. Wait… don't you dare tell her I said that Sarah Bartowski."

With a final sniffle Sarah said "I won't Ellie Bartowski Woodcomb… sis."

* * *

By the end of the week they had most everything laid out; training schedules, restructured cyberland, expansion of the field team, access to a government airbase near Chicago, Naval Station Great Lakes, with an available hanger, to store all the weapons and equipment that was already coming in. Casey had hastily put together a team in case anything happened between now and when they could get the agency teams trained, even though the contract didn't start till the first of the year, and the teams weren't scheduled to be on line till sometime in February. Using their own people for the team and personnel from Verbanski Enterprises for building security, he would have a team intersect loaded and ready for deployment by Thanksgiving. Sarah almost decided to postpone the vacation on Thursday morning, to help Casey with the team loads, but Casey and Ellie talked her out of it… they had everything well in hand.

Chuck and Sarah left Friday afternoon on their private jet, headed for the Caribbean. As a thank you for their support through the past six months, Morgan and Alex went with them. Morgan was, after all, the company's lead pilot; he had trained to get his license, and the plan was for him to intersect load the ability to handle every aircraft and vehicle known to man, from ultralights to SR-71's. Arriving in the Caribbean, the four took a boat to a private island that would be their home for the next four days.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday… for three days the two couples enjoyed, sun, surf and sand, thinking about nothing but their partner and what to have for dinner. Chuck and Sarah spent half the time going over her memories and telling each other all the things going through their heads during each of the events. The other half they pretty much spent in bed. In a lot of ways it was like a three day therapy session mixed with a three day second honeymoon. They even did an hour Skype session with a CIA Psychiatrist. By Monday night they had pretty much gotten all of Sarah's memories back. In many ways, they were closer now than before Quinn, much more open about their feelings, willing to tell each other everything, good, bad or indifferent. This was extremely difficult for Sarah, even after all this time with Chuck, but she forced herself. She had to admit it was interesting, and she was constantly learning new things about Chuck, to say nothing of what she was revealing about herself to Chuck… and to herself. She was learning, or admitting, things about herself that astounded her. Monday night after Dinner they went and sat on the beach.

"Babe, there is one more thing we need to talk about. The last couple of days before Quinn took you. Our discussions about leaving the spy life."

"I remember. We were asked to rejoin the CIA. I asked you if we could not do it… I wanted to get out of the spy life and have a real life… and a family. You agreed. We even talked to Casey and Morgan about it. That's why you did what you did with Carmichael Industries. No more spying. No more getting shot at, or kidnapped, or disarming bombs or being in danger. So what's the problem?"

"Well, what we're talking about doing with the intersect and the MAR teams… I know it was your idea… but are you okay with this?"

"Absolutely. Chuck, we both know we could never walk away from all of this completely. There is too much evil in the world… we both got into this life to do the right thing. Granted you got into it by accident and I got in so I wouldn't go to prison, but how could we not use the intersect for good… knowing about all the people who we could have saved… all the people that would be injured or killed if we did nothing… just because we wanted to be safe. No… I think this is a good compromise. Orion Industries involvement in field operations will be minimal, and as safe as we can make it. I think we have to do this… we couldn't live with ourselves if we don't."

"God I love you."

"Right back at you stud."

They spent the next several hours on the secluded beach making each other deliriously happy, before going back to their bungalow.

Tuesday morning dawned bright and lovely… then the excrement hit the rotary air device. Shots rang out… voices yelling… people scrambling in the brush. Sarah was on the floor with her sidearm in her hand before she even woke up.

"CHUCK! Are you okay?"

"Yes… here!"

To Sarah's amazement, her tactical clothing and body armor came sailing across the bed. In less than two minutes she and Chuck were both dressed and ready. She could hear Chuck talking to someone as he came crawling around the bed. He handed her an odd looking headset with a monocular eyepiece, and a rifle. She knew better than to ask questions at this point but they were definitely going to have a discussion later on. Then she saw what he was carrying.

"CHUCK!" Around his hips were double holsters holding what looked like SIG P229 and a combat sling with a SR-16 carbine. She hoped the grenades hanging on his harness were flash-bangs, but she knew better, just by their shape and color. He looked up when she called his name and the hard look on his face scared her even more than the weapons.

"Looks like eight to twelve opponents, maybe more. The staff are safe in a bunker under their quarters and Morgan has Alex in the bunker under bungalow 2. Casey and a tac team are fifteen minutes out by helicopter and RIBs with another tac team are five minutes behind them. We need some alive for interrogation and I don't think Casey and his tac boys will be in the mood to take prisoners. Talk to me Morgan."

Morgan chimed in on their earpieces. "Sensors show two groups of four sweeping the compound, three at the dock and three between the two sweep teams. That's probably the leadership. Nothing in your vicinity for another two minutes. I'm sending you visual now."

In the eyepiece Sarah could see a schematic of the grounds and red dots showing the positions of the intruders and blue dots showing the friendlies.

"Okay. Sarah and I will head out to the east, circle the assault teams and take the command group from the flank. Sarah, I'll take the lead."

The pair slipped out the rear door of the bungalow and slinked into the underbrush moving to the east. The compound was oriented to the north so moving to the east put the enemy teams on their left. Moving silently, the pair glided through the jungle like a pair of big cats stalking their prey, moving around fifty meters to the east then turning north. Sarah marveled at the way Chuck moved… silently… invisibly… ghosting through the brush. Even knowing where he was, she had trouble picking him out of the jungle.

Swinging around at Morgan's direction, they come up on the command group. Chuck really wanted this group alive, so was considering going in hand to hand, but they were within view of the trio at the docks. Chuck motioned Sarah to watch the direction the assault teams would come from. As soon as she was ready, he popped up and using his carbine, dropped all three members of the command team with leg shots. Turning rapidly, he then dropped the three at the docks and swung around and got the first two coming from the compound before he had to change magazines. An amazed Sarah took out the second pair coming from the compound then dropped down into the bushes with Chuck. He had done the whole thing on semi-auto, firing a single shot at a time, all in under seven seconds… and not a shot had missed. Every one of Chuck's shots had hit exactly where he had aimed them. Sarah turned a withering glare at Chuck while they changed position… which he didn't notice.

The sound of helicopters suddenly became noticeable. The second enemy team had come from the compound, but seeing all the bodies, had stopped behind cover to assess the situation. Chuck could all but hear their thoughts. This was definitely a bust… bodies everywhere… must have been an ambush… the enemy must have been waiting for them… how the hell do they get out? The boat? Grab one of the helicoptors? Two of them looked at each other, put their weapons down and stood, hands on their heads. The other pair took one wild look around, then visibly calmed and did the same.

"Morgan… the four to our south are giving up… any unaccounted for?"

"No sir… that's all of them."

"Casey… we got them all. Land at the LZ and come on in."

"Roger that. Boats… move in and secure the dock. Watch for the on-scene team."

"Morgan… you and Alex can come out. Please make sure the staff are okay, then join Sarah and I."

It took five minutes for the helo team to get in and the boat team to land. Finally secure, an irate Sarah turned to Chuck. "What the hell was that?"

In a hard, monotone voice Chuck said "I'm not sure! We'll know after the interrogations."

"That's not what I mean and you know it. Since when do you use lethal weapons? Why was our tactical gear ready and waiting? What is this place? Why are there bunkers under all the buildings? And what was Casey doing with a tac team fifteen minutes away?"

Chuck sighed and slowly his visage changed. Sarah could see his face relaxing… the normal Chuck coming out… the 'hard' Chuck receding.

"Sorry… I was hoping you would never have to see this… much less this soon. Okay, here we go. First the easy stuff. We own this compound… well the whole island really. It's our R&R post for all the employees. I've never been down here myself, but whenever someone gets too close to the edge, or as a reward, we send them down here for a couple of days. The bunkers are mostly for hurricane protection, but as you can see work as safe area's against assaults. As for our tac gear… well the weapons were here all along. I got my side arms and our rifles from the armory when we first arrived. I knew you had brought your sidearms with you. The clothes… um… I have a go bag in my apartment with my… um… our gear in it and grabbed it when we left home. And yes I'm pathetic… I've been carrying your tac gear and body armor with me for six months… I just… I couldn't leave it behind. Now for my weapons. Um… when you were gone… I… well after you came back… um… I realized I wasn't strong enough to lose you again. If I have to kill to keep you safe… so be it… I'll live with it… as long as you are… safe… here… with me."

With tears and a quivering voice Sarah put her arms around his neck and asked "And what about the change… the hard Chuck."

"That's part of my intersect load. When there is trouble, that automatically flashes. It suppresses my emotions and lets the cold, hard, rational side of me come out. We call it Combat Chuck. This is the first time I've actually used it outside of training. I am happy to say it does not change my attitude about killing."

"So if I were not here, what would you have done?"

"Um… probably waited till the tac team landed then gone after the command team with trank guns."

"So you'd have no problem with them killing you… you just won't let them harm me."

Suddenly interested in his shoes Chuck stammered out "Well I wouldn't say no problem with them killing me… but yeah… that's about the size of it."

Gently lifting his face to look her in the eye, she smiled. "Then I'll just have to make sure I never let you go out without me."

"Wait… you don't mind… I mean you were always worried…"

"Chuck… stop! You are Chuck Bartowski. You will never be a cold blooded killer… hell, you'll never even be like John and I. Even in this situation, fourteen of them and two of us… you could not bring yourself to kill. Leg wounds… rounds in the body armor… I'm still pretty sure it would have to be an awful desperate situation for you to intentionally kill someone… like Paris."

The two stood holding hands for a few moments, gazing into each other's eyes. "Hey… wait a minute. What about Casey and the tac teams? Where did they come from?"

"Didn't you read Casey's memos? He sent a series of memos starting late Friday. He got the downloads for the tac teams done, and loaded our in house team on Friday. Saturday, they spent the day in the simulators and Sunday they flew down. We own another island a couple of miles away. The other island is about four times the size of this one, no civilian population and has a rough airfield. We use it for live fire training and training the locals. As I said, this one is our R&R facility. We have contracts with a number of local constabularies to assist them with training their SWAT personnel. As soon as the firing started I put out an emergency signal and Casey scrambled. Got here pretty quick too."

As Chuck was speaking Casey had walked up. "GRUNT Yeah and next time I might take longer. You didn't even leave a couple for us to hunt. Had to capture them all yourself… glory hound. Ah well… the scramble was good practice."

Morgan and Alex walked up at this point. Looking around Morgan quipped "Jeez, if the locals don't want us down here they could have just said something. Well, this has been fun. Can we go home now?"


	7. Chapter 7

Yeah, probably another thing I should have mentioned. My Chuck, Sarah, Ellie, Devon, etc... are not quite canon. The show seem to sometimes playdown or at least not acknowledge Chucks native intelligence. He's a genius. Just because he's a nerd doesn't mean he's naive or obtuse. Yes I know you can be dumb without being stupid, but you don't get through four years at Stanford by being dumb. Sometimes the writers made him dumb in certain areas and I don't. Smart is smart, nerd or not. And don't get me started on Elllie... she's an MD and a Phd... that's pretty tough and calls for some serious smarts. So I'm just having my characters live up to what I think they should have been.

Chapter 7.

It took the rest of the day to patch up the wounded enemy agents, get them ferried over to the airstrip and ready to go north. Casey's teams had several medics with them, but Chuck and Casey had to flash some medical segments for a couple of the more severely wounded. During the clean-up it was found that one of the attackers at the dock was dead. Chuck had put two into his body armor, just like he did the others. All three went down with broken ribs, plus concussions and head trauma when they hit the deck. Unfortunately, one went off the end of the dock and drowned. When Chuck found out, he went down to the dock and stood staring at the body for ten minutes. Sarah and Casey watched him from a distance. Sarah, having gotten her memories back by this point, knew what this was doing to Chuck, but there wasn't a thing she or Casey could say or do to help. Chuck turned and walked back to the compound in silence.

Once everyone was at the airfield, they decided to do some on the spot interrogations. They dosed the leadership team, one at a time, with babble juice. The bets were all split 50 / 50 between these clowns being a RING remnant or a bunch of rouge Volkoff refugees. Turned out they were a RING remnant. These fourteen were the last field team any of them knew about. They also revealed the names of about twenty other RING agents, most of them embedded in the military or various agencies… including one in the CIA and two in the NSA.

Chuck had Alex make the initial call to General Beckman.

"Good afternoon Alex. What can I do for the president of Orion Industries?"

In a very somber, depressed voice Alex said "General Beckman. There's been trouble… are you alone?"

"Standby… Okay, I'm alone."

"Scramble please General." Alex and General Beckman each pushed a key. The screens flashed over then cleared. Chuck came up on the screen in place of Alex.

"Chuck… what's going on?"

"We had an attack earlier today and I'm trying to make sure no one knows how it came out, so you have time for arrests. We have eleven prisoners for you, and three bodies. They're RING operatives. We did a quick interrogation on the leader and he gave up the names of some remaining RING operatives and leadership… most of whom are embedded in various agencies. You have two in the NSA, Colonel Todd and Captain Woods. At the CIA it's worse. It looks like Associate Director Bowman, Internal Security is RING. He's how they found us. I'll e-mail you the entire list."

"Great... well we knew there were some left. Thanks for the intel. Orion Industries is paying off already. Um… are you okay… did you lose anyone?"

"No. One of the staff took a round in the leg but that's about the size of our injuries."

Beckman could tell something was bothering Chuck. "Is Sarah okay?"

"She's fine. Um… one of the bodies is my kill."

"I'm sorry Chuck."

"Thanks Diane. We'll be leaving first thing in the morning instead of the afternoon, and we'll also have a C-130 with us, loaded to the gills."

"Okay…. I'll have a prisoner detail waiting. I think I'll put Colonel Todd in charge."

After the call, Chuck and Sarah went back to the R&R island for the night. They had a light dinner then went and sat on the beach watching the sun set, wrapped in each other's arms.

"Chuck… it wasn't your fault. You did everything you possibly could."

"I know. I still don't like the feeling. It makes me feel… I don't know… I just don't like it. Is this… um.. is this how you feel? Dirty… nauseated… sick!"

"Yes… I've learned to live with it over the years, and I don't think it hits me as hard as it does you… but yes. This is why I was so mad at you after your supposed red test. You clearly were not bothered and you should have been. I was physically sick after my red test, and there you were, bouncing around like it was no big thing. I'm glad you're so upset. Chuck… I'm here to remind you of the man you are… the good, honest, loving man you are… who hates killing, hates lying, hates deceit… and can stay that way even while having to do… things. I love you Chuck."

Chuck looked down at the love of his life wrapped in his arms, and wheezed out "I love you too" as tears ran down his cheeks. They spent the night on the beach, just holding each other and watching the stars.

Wednesday morning they took off early and were on the ground at Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington, by 0930. They were met by a fairly large group. General Beckman, in civies with a suitcase, stood with Colonel Todd. Also present were ambulances, morgue wagons, a prison bus and a number of heavily armed guards.

"Um… General? May I ask what this is all about?"

"Certainly Colonel. We are meeting a team coming up from the Caribbean. They were assaulted yesterday and there have been a number of casualties."

Calmly, almost smugly, the Colonel looked around, trying to look relaxed. When he noticed the number of Ambulances and only one morgue wagon, he became a little more concerned but still remained unperturbed.

"Who was hit and how bad?"

"It was one of our sub-contractors and they tell me they have, seven wounded and three dead."

It began to register with the Colonel. That was about the size of the Walker and Bartowski group. So the team must have gotten three of the four targets and wounded the six staff on the island. He wondered who of the targets survived? The two planes landed and taxied up. The big C-130 dropped it's rear gate and a group of heavily armed men jogged off and formed a ring around the gate. Four prisoners were marched off and the Colonel turned pale as he recognized one of the prisoners as a RING agent. Suddenly hands grabbed his arms, forcing them behind his back and cuffs were slapped onto his wrists. A hand gripped his jaw and forced his mouth open. A mouth guard was pushed into his mouth and tape slapped across it.

"Sorry about the mouth guard Colonel, but Captain Woods had a false tooth with poison so we assumed you did too. Once we get the giggle juice in you, we'll take it out."

The Colonel was led over to join the four prisoners being escorted to a nondescript building along the taxiway. Chuck and Sarah exited the smaller plane and joined the General.

"Chuck… Sarah… nice to see you. Especially nice to see you whole and hearty. Chuck… how are you doing?"

Chuck still looked sullen. "I'm okay. It was nothing spectacular. There were only the fourteen of them. Sarah and I handled them before the Tacteam arrived. I wanted live prisoners, and you know how Casey and his people get. Body count… that's all they're interested in… body count."

"You and Sarah handled fourteen heavily armed enemy agents alone? Just because you didn't trust the tacteam to take enough of them alive? Seriously!"

Sarah looked at her husband with fake disgust. "Actually he handled most of it alone. He only let me get two shots off."

The General just shook her head. "Well between this crew, Colonel Todd and Associate Director Bowman, we probably should get the names of what's left of the RING."

"What happened to Captain Woods?"

"Poison in a fake tooth. Glad we did him first… warned us about the other two."

It took some time but finally all the prisoners, wounded and hale, were off the aircraft and on their way, and both aircraft were refueled. "Well this seems to be in hand… shall we go?"

Chuck looked around "There were going to be a couple more people… ah… there they are."

Sarah looked over and saw coming towards her, bags in hand, George and Amy... or actually Cole Barker and Victoria Dunwoody. She looked questionably at Chuck. "I asked them to Thanksgiving. I hope you don't mind… I wanted it to be a surprise. Surprise!"

Laughing at his unease she snorted "It's fine. I wanted to thank them anyway, so…" turning to the pair she called "Welcome." As they approached, Sarah hugged first Vicky, then Cole without thinking. That's what the Bartowski's do… they hug. Both looked shocked at the change in their boss, Vicky more than Cole. Every one climbed in and Chuck told Morgan they were ready. Shortly they were at cruising altitude, with the aircraft on autopilot. Morgan and Alex came out of the cockpit and stood behind the Generals chair. She was facing aft, and had Cole and Vicky on chairs to her right, and Chuck and Sarah sitting on a couch to her left.

Alex was playing stewardess. "Would anyone like something to drink?" It was still pretty early so everyone opted for coffee, tea or water.

Chuck waited till everyone was served. "Okay, everyone on this plane knows about the intersect so we don't have to be circumspect. Cole, Vicky, I'm not sure if you know about each other so I'll introduce you. Cole Barker is an MI6 agent that Sarah and I worked with some years ago at which time he learned that I was the intersect. NSA Agent Victoria Dunwoody actually was an intersect herself for a while, however that project was canceled and the intersect removed from her and her partner before any permanent damage was done. You are both here because I would like to limit the number of people who know what we are doing at least at the beginning and as you two already know about the intersect, you seemed a good place to start. General, I'd like to bring you and these agents up to speed on the capabilities of the new intersect and the proposal for the expanded MAR project."

For the next twenty minutes Chuck explained about the work he, Ellie and her team had been doing, and the new MAR project.

"So what it boils down to is, the field agents will all be knowledgeable intersects. The sniper teams and tactical teams will all be non-knowledgeable intersects. The transfer of data from the intersect to the host is so smooth in this new version, that the tactical teams will never realize."

The General looked quizzically at Chuck. "And you claim that no one will be able to talk about it."

"Correct. Everybody who knows will be under a cone of silence." Everyone looked at him blankly. "Come on… no one… really, none of you got the reference?"

Morgan chuckled. "I got it!"

"Thanks buddy… at least there's one other nerd on the plane."

The General looked at Sarah, then looked at Chuck. "What about me? I'll still be able to spill the beans."

"Yes I know… and it's a good point. You and the other two will be the only people on the planet who will know about the 'training' we are doing and not be conditioned. Frankly, I'm not quite sure what to do about that."

"I do… we all need to be conditioned." Everyone looked at the General like she was talking about jumping from the plane without a parachute. "It will have to be a VERY selective conditioning, but I believe the others will go for it… hell I know they'll go for it."

Chuck looked a little skeptical. "Diane, that is awfully trusting of you… all of you."

"Look Chuck… the contract has a clause forbidding anyone from even asking about the training, so I assumed that you would have some way of enforcing that. I've already spoken to both the National Security Advisor and the Director of National Intelligence, and we all agreed, that if this is what we had to do to get the MAR project back, and more importantly, get intersect agents, then we'd all do it."

"Thank you Diane, we really appreciate it. That actually solves the last problem and gets us to the question of Cole and Vicky. What do you both think? Do you want in?"

Vicky immediately said yes, but Cole looked around, clearly a little confused. "I'm not sure I understand. This new intersect is supposed to make us some kind of supermen? Really? Chuck when you had it, all you got were flashes with data, intel and info… very useful but still..."

"Sorry, Cole… I didn't think. Yes, that was the first iteration of the intersect, without the skills. You're the only one here who doesn't have any experience with later versions. Except for General Beckman, all of us either have or have had the intersect."

"Have? You have it now?"

"Yes. Morgan, Alex and I all have some version of it. Sarah will get her load in the next week or so. General Beckman, in that you will be loading the conditioning, you might as well take an intest then load anything else you want."

Cole still seemed a little skeptical. "Um… is there any way you could show me? This is really hard to believe."

Chuck looked around, then said "Yeah… okay… we can do something. Morgan, can you go up and sit with the controls. We're going to be moving around some and in case we get carried away you should be at the controls."

"Righto boss man."

"Alex could you come back here please. Alex call up the action segment please and then defend only. Now we have three levels of what we call the action segment. This includes a number of martial arts, gymnastics, parkour, knife fighting, boxing, etc. The three levels are basic, standard and advanced. Our tacteams will have the standard load. Alex, here, has the basic load. Cole… hit her."

"You want me to hit a woman."

"You don't have to hit her hard… just slap her."

Looking dubiously at Chuck, Cole steps up to the 5' 2" slightly built brunette and with no warning slaps at her face. Alex's arm flashes up and blocks the slap. Cole tries again… again Alex blocks. This time Cole takes an obvious martial arts stance and sends a three punch flurry at Alex… all blocked easily, one handed. Cole steps back and looks around, clearly confused. He steps back in and sends a flurry of lefts and rights, aimed at every part of Alex's body. Faster and faster Cole punches, to the point where it is extremely difficult to see individual blows… or attempted blows. Clearly frustrated, Cole begins adding kicks. Nothing even come's close to Alex. After a solid five minutes, Cole stops and steps back, huffing and puffing, sweat beginning to run down his face. Alex is barely breathing hard, and has not moved a step.

"Vicky… would you mind aiding Cole." Determination etched on his face, Cole steps in and again attacks. Vicky steps in, to Cole's left, presumably his weak side, and also begins a full speed attack. For the first time Alex has to move… a little. Blocking and avoiding, Alex sways to and fro. Nothing touches her.

"I think that's enough." Said Chuck. Cole and Vicky step back clearly impressed. "If we had the room, I would have asked Sarah to join you… but you get my point. If I had not asked her to just defend, you both would have been down in… oh five seconds or so."

"And Alex here has had no martial arts training?"

"Outside of the intersect, none."

"That is impressive… truly impressive."

"When used in conjunction with training, or when loading a trained person, it gets even better. In fact, the advanced version is virtually worthless without practice. Truth to tell, I'm kind of excited to see Sarah in action with the advanced version. The basic we'll use for our support staff and analysts, just to keep them safe from muggers, etc. The load the tacteam will use, is up a notch, and includes weapons proficiency. We have tested it, and the load makes any individual deadly accurate out to the range of the weapon. Morgan here with the standard load, scores 100 out of 100 with a hand gun at 100 yards."

Sarah chimes in at this point. "Cole, you saw the prisoners we dropped off in DC. That was a fourteen man assault team that attacked us while we slept. Chuck basically took out the entire enemy team alone. Fourteen heavily armed agents… he dropped eight before they realized what was happening."

Cole looks around, then smiles broadly. "Okay… I'm in."

A/N: Did everybody get the "Get Smart" reference? If not, and you are over forty, you lose a nerd point. If you are under forty and did get it, you gain a nerd point. If you didn't even recognize there was a reference... well just shame on you.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Still don't own Chuck.

 _ **Chapter 8.**_

It was after noon before they got back to Chicago. The cargo plane with Casey and his tacteams landed at the Naval Station Great Lakes, while Morgan landed the company jet at the municipal field that they used. Morgan, Alex and Casey were flying to Burbank that afternoon, so Morgan and Alex just transferred their gear to the small four-seater that Morgan owned, and got comfortable to wait for Casey. The rest were picked up by a company limo for the ride into the city.

Chuck and Sarah got their guests situated in one of the guest apartments. Sarah took Diane down to the first floor and set her up in a spare office to get some work done during the afternoon, before heading to her own office. Chuck took Cole and Vicky to the fourth floor before heading to his office. They planned on meeting back at Chuck and Sarah's apartment for dinner. By 3:00 pm Chuck started shooing his senior cybertechs out, sending them home to be with their families for the Holiday. He had enough youngsters, with no family in the area, to cover the office over the holiday weekend, all of them planning on staying in the office the entire long weekend. They would much rather be there with their friends than sitting alone at home anyway, and here they had all the movies, video games and computers they wanted. Chuck even picked up the tab for pizza and Chinese delivery.

Around 5:00 Chuck went up to the apartment to start dinner. While Sarah was a better cook, Chuck asked if he could take this one… he hoped it would take his mind off… well, what he wanted to take his mind off. When he walked into the apartment he was attacked by a whirling dervish named Molly.

"CHUCK!" Seeing Chuck, Molly charged across the room and flung herself into his waiting arms. Chuck knew exactly where to tickle her to bring on a gail of laughter and giggles.

Emma followed her daughter at a more sedate pace. "Hi Chuck."

"Hi Emma… how are you? I see Molly is as demure and calm as always."

Seeing something in his eyes, Emma immediately became concerned. "Chuck… what's the matter… where's Sarah… is she okay?"

"Calm down Emma… everything's fine. Sarah is downstairs in her office clearing up some details with a new client. She'll be up in a little while."

"Is everything alright Chuck… between you and Sarah I mean?"

Chuck had put Molly down by this point. He stepped to Emma and gave her a mild Bartowski hug and a kiss on the cheek. "I'm sorry to worry you Emma. Everything is fine between Sarah and I. As a matter of fact, we're actually closer now than before all this began. Really… everything is good. It's all me… I'm just working through some stuff. I need to get dinner started. Come on squirt… help me make dinner."

Looking dubious, Emma watched as Chuck took Molly into the kitchen. She went back to doing her favorite thing when she was at Chuck and Sarah's apartment… look at all their pictures. She wandered around the living room looking at dozens of pictures of Chuck and Sarah, plus a number of the rest of their extended family. She was terribly worried that the new Sarah wouldn't have that look she had in all the pictures, when she was looking at Chuck. She could hear voices in the hall, and as she turned toward the front door Sarah walked in.

"Mom!"

Emma didn't even register the person standing behind Sarah as she quickly went to her daughter. "Hi baby girl." Both began crying immediately, wrapped in each other's arms. It was a couple of moments before Emma could pull back and look her daughter in the eyes… her laughing, crying eyes.

Molly yelled "Sarah!" and when Sarah looked over at her husband holding her sister to allow the mother and daughter a moment, Emma's heart leapt… there was the look she wanted to see on her daughters face… the look of love when gazing at her husband. She burst into another round of sobbing and clutched at her daughter. Composing themselves, the pair maneuvered over to the couch and sat.

"Oh Sarah… you're okay… really okay. Oh, I was so worried. Chuck's been calling regularly telling me what's been going on, and I was so relieved when you called and told me you were home. But Chuck just came in and I could see it in his eyes… Sarah what's the problem… are you two having a fight?"

"No mom… Chuck and I are closer than we've ever been. I just love him so much. And somehow… no, not somehow… his family, our family, has helped me forgive myself for what happened. So everything is wonderful."

"Then what's the problem… there's something going on… I can see it in Chucks eyes… he's… I don't know… he's not sad… it's something else."

"Chucks going through an issue mom… one I can't help him with. Actually, now that I think about it, it's kind of the same issue I had… he did something and now he needs to forgive himself."

Emma looked skeptical. "What in the world could Chuck have done that he would need to forgive himself for? Chuck? Nonsense! He would never..." She saw the sadness in her daughter's eyes and stopped. "What happened?"

"You need to ask him mom… get him to talk about it. I don't think he could stand to tell Ellie so you may be the only one he'll talk to about it that could help him. Ellie, Devon and Morgan are too far away from it, have no experience with this type of thing, and they are too close to Chuck anyway. John, Mary and I are too close to it, have too much experience with it, so that kind of leaves you."

The apartment seemed to suddenly be filled with people. Diane had come in with Sarah, and while the mother and daughter were lost in their conversation, Cole and Vicky, then Ellie, Devon, Mary and Clara all came in. Weaving through the adults was Molly.

"SARAH!"

"Hi Molly! Wow, you're getting big. What have you been doing in there?"

"I'm helping Chuck make dinner."

In a stage whisper Sarah responded. "Well we can't leave him alone in the kitchen, he'll probably end up ruining the food. Let's go help him."

Sarah, and Molly, went and relieved Chuck in the kitchen so he could come out and welcome everyone. Chuck made the rounds saying hello and getting drinks for people. When he got to Ellie she could see the shadow in his eyes. He assured her it was nothing, but she wasn't convinced. Finally Chuck got to Emma.

"Hi Emma… how was the flight. Not too bad I hope."

"Chuck… talk to me… what's going on? You can tell me… after everything you've done for Sarah… Chuck, I want to help, please."

Chuck looked down at the floor, then looked around the room. "Let's go in the back." Chuck led Emma into his game den. Chuck again stood looking at the floor. "Um… Emma… I… Oh Emma… I killed a man." Tears began running down Chucks face.

Emma moved to Chuck and held his arms. "Chuck tell me what happened. Was this man trying to kill you?"

"Yes… but the real problem was he was trying to kill Sarah. I couldn't… while she was away, I realized that I wasn't strong enough to survive… If I lost her again… I'm not sure what I would do." Chuck sobbed, paused for a moment, taking a big breath he continued. "You know that Sarah and I have both been involved with the CIA. Well we have accumulated enemies along the way. One of those enemies attacked us while we were taking a couple of days in the Caribbean. Fourteen of them came to kill us. I couldn't let them hurt Sarah… so I stopped them. I managed to wound most of them but… well there were three on a dock… I wounded all three but one rolled off the dock and drowned."

"Chuck… it wasn't your fault."

"Everyone keeps saying that. I know that. He's still dead. I killed him."

Emma was quiet for several minutes. "No, actually you didn't. Chuck think about it. He died because of a long series of choices HE made over the course of his life. His choices… not yours. He choose the life he lived… he choose to be a killer… he choose to attack you and my daughter. His choice Chuck… not yours. He forced you to do what you did. You didn't go looking for him. You did everything you could to give him further choices. His choice Chuck." Emma sobbed just a little. "Chuck, I can't tell you how happy I am that this bothers you so much. It's just another indication of how good and deceit you are… you, the man my daughter choose to give her love to… the man who has taught her what love is… given her a life… the man I hope will be the father of my grandchildren… soon, please. But son… it was his choice. Forgive yourself, you deserve it."

Chuck took a deep breath, thinking… after five or six minutes he looked up at Emma. She literally could see the shadow leave his eyes. "Thank you Emma."

Emma wrapped him in a hug. "You are more than welcome son."

Emma went out to the living room while Chuck went to wash his face. Sarah saw Emma come back in. Their eyes met and Emma nodded, bringing a sob from Sarah, causing her to reach for a towel to wipe her eyes. When Chuck came in he looked a lot better. He immediately went to Sarah for a long hug and a kiss, before going back to his mingling. Never one to miss anything, Ellie noted the whole event and had already resolved to find out what was going on. When she saw the shadow gone from Chuck's eyes, she resolved to find out what was going on… later. She went into the kitchen to help Sarah.

"Hi Molly. What are we doing?"

"We are making a green salad. What to help?"

"Sure." Ellie looked over at a misty eyed Sarah. "Anything you'd like to share with your sister?"

"Well yes, but not at the moment… looks like the crisis is averted. I'll fill you in when we have some time."

"Hey, I thought I was Sarah's sister."

"You are squirt… you and Sarah are both my sisters. Okay?"

"Okay."

Dinner was a simple affair. Considering that the next day was Thanksgiving and would pretty much be food all day long, they opted for burgers and Monte Cristo's, with a green salad and chips. Everyone stood around with plates of food talking about one subject or another. Looking around Sarah savored the moment. This was what she would have missed if she hadn't come back… this and Chuck of course. But it took the Bartowski clan to make her realize what she had missed growing up with her father… a loving, honest, deceit family. Now she had one. She had a big sister, a little sister, a big brother in Casey… she had more family than she'd ever thought she could have… or deserve. Not only that, it was a kickass family that had already shown her that they were willing to do anything for her.

Some hours later, Chuck was on the couch with Molly playing Mario Cart when she began yawning. That was Emma's cue.

"Come on little one… time for bed." Emma gathered her up and headed for Molly's bedroom. Ellie had already taken Clara across the hall to put her in bed, so now it was just the adults. Conversation continued till Emma came back in.

Awesome looked around then turned to Cole. "Okay, the kids are gone… it's just adults now… how about a story from the annals of MI6, you must have some good ones."

Cole got a wicked smile on this face. "Well I do have a good one but it wasn't during my MI6 days… it was actually a lot more recent. There were these three agents, Rebecca, George and Amy who…"

Sarah caught what he was saying. "Oh no you don't… you better not be telling the story I think you're telling Cole Barker!"

Laughing Cole said "Why not… it's a great story. Anyway, these three agents were trailing a female enemy agent. She was the agent that a certain missing CIA agent was following when he became a missing CIA agent. So they followed her into a club. They had to figure some way of taking her quietly, her and her escort, whom they figured was an enemy agent also. Finally Clare, that was the female enemy agent, got in line for the rest room. The girls followed her and I kind of ambled up to the bar next to her escort. I start talking to him, bought him a drink and pretty soon we're talking like old friends. I make sure the bartender see's us all chummy, and while the barkeep is at the other end of the bar I tap the escort on the back of his neck… with this." Cole holds up his hand with a ring, a kind of pointy ring. "You turn the ring around so it's in your palm, then slap in their neck or shoulder. It administers a dose of tranquilizer. When the barkeep comes back escort boy is out like a light. I tell the bartender. 'My buddy is kind of a lightweight. I'm just going to put into a back booth and let him sleep it off.' I tell the girls he's handled and they are clear to take the female agent."

"Now all this time they've been in the line for the rest room with Clare, waiting for the all clear and have finally gone in."

" Suddenly I hear Clare over the comm say 'What are you looking at?'"

"Rebecca answers 'Who me? Nothing!'"

'You're looking at something.' Rebecca tells me later that Clare grabbed her purse and reaches into it. Rebecca figures she's going for a weapon, so she says 'Okay… okay… you got me… I was looking at your boobs, they're fantastic… who does your work? Amy come over and look at these boobs, they're great."

"Well I lose it… I almost choke on my drink. I've got my hands clapped over my mouth to keep from screaming with laughter. I think I miss a line because the next thing I hear is Clare telling Rebecca that they are real… you know… natural. Rebecca continues to gush keeping Clare's attention. Well she must really be doing a convincing job because the next thing I hear is Clare saying 'Go ahead… feel them… all natural.' I had to leave the bar area and go back to sit with the escort. I couldn't even stand up I was laughing so hard."

Cole stopped and took a sip of his drink. Awesome couldn't take it. "So what happened?"

"Um? Oh… Amy came up behind Clare while Rebecca is feeling her up and slaps her neck with a tranq dart. It took me fifteen minutes to calm down enough to help the girls carry the pair of them out. Oh god I never laughed so hard on a mission in my life."

"What about the CIA agent."

"Oh, after we dosed Clare with some babble juice she told us everything. We found him all tied up in a warehouse with like a hundred boxes of ammo and weapons."

With huge smiles all around, everybody turned to look at Sarah. The blush started at her toes and ran right up her body till it hit her hair line. Laughing she buried her face in Chucks chest.

"Well I had to do something… I couldn't have her shooting up the club. You are so going to regret telling that story Cole Barker!"

Awesome looked around the room. "Okay, if nobody else is going to ask the obvious question I will… were they real and how did they feel?"

Sarah just groaned and buried her face deeper into Chuck's chest, laughing along with everyone else.

* * *

The party hadn't broken up till just before midnight so everyone had agreed to sleep in. Chuck was just waking up. He tried to roll over to cuddle Sarah but something was on his chest. He cracked one eye open but saw nothing but blonde hair. Sarah? No… she was lying next to him. A finger lifted the eyelid he had just cracked.

"Molly?"

In a whisper she said "Hi Chuck. Mom said I couldn't wake you up… that I had to wait. I waited!"

"That was nice of you Molly."

"Chuck… why is Sarah in your bed?"

"Well, it's her bed too Molly."

"Why does she sleep with you? Does she have bad dreams? The only time I sleep with Mom is when I'm sick or have a bad dream. Is Sarah sick?"

Chuck could feel Sarah shaking and hear her trying to muffle her laughter in a pillow. "No Molly."

"Oh. So why does she sleep with you?"

"Um… well you know we are married, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know what that means? To be married?"

"Yeah. It means kissing and making babies and stuff. Is that why she sleeps with you? To make babies?"

"EMMA!"

Emma came in almost immediately. "There you are. Didn't I tell you to let Chuck and Sarah sleep?"

"I did… I was waiting when Chuck woke up. Momma is Sarah sleeping with Chuck to make babies? That's what Chuck said."

Emma helped Molly off the bed and began steering her toward the door. "Did he now? Making babies, um?"

"I NEVER SAID THAT!"

Sarah still had her face buried in her pillow and was trying desperately to stifle her laughter.

"You could have jumped in at any point you know!"

"Oh no... That was just too much fun!"

Chuck rolled into her and they wrapped their arms around each other. "You know you really are going to make a great Dad."

"Thanks. And I think you'll make a really sexy mom… no… wait… I mean a really great mom."

Laughing again Sarah swatted him in the chest before kissing him fervently and going back to cuddling. After several moments, Sarah leaned back and looked up into Chucks eyes.

"You know I mean that, you are going to be a great dad."

Chuck paused for several seconds then said "Sarah… thank you."

"Well, I really do think you'll be a great Dad."

"No… thank you… thank you for being you… thank you for coming back. Sarah, you said you want us to be totally honest with each other, to tell each other what we're thinking and feeling, tell each other everything… so here goes. I never told you this… I never told anyone this… just before we met, just before I got the intersect and all this started… I had decided to… end it all. I couldn't take any more… any more hurt. After Stanford, and Bryce and then Jill… my parents… a dead end job… I just didn't feel it was worth all the pain. The only reason I hadn't done it up till then was Ellie and Morgan. The Japanese have a saying. 'Death is light as a feather… duty is heavy as a mountain.' Well my duty to Ellie… and Morgan… that was heavy… that was the only thing keeping me alive. But Ellie had Devon and Morgan was moving on so…"

"Then I met you. I fell for you the first time I looked into your eyes. You taught me what love really was, and then you taught me what duty really was. I saw everything you had gone through… everything you had given up for duty… and it made me feel ashamed. I was going to kill myself over a couple of broken hearts, and here you were defending us all after giving up everything… family… friends… future… love. You taught me what duty really was… and what love really is. So… thank you."

Sarah stared into his eyes, tears running down her cheeks. "Oh Chuck… we are such a pair. I was just as broken as you. I really didn't give up as much as you thought. I had never known love… real love. My father… well I was more a tool for him to use in his cons. I suppose he loved me in his own way… but he never let me feel it, never showed it. I never really knew my mom… I'm really just getting to know her now. As for the 'relationships' I had in the CIA… none of them had any love in them, in either direction. So when I met you… that first day in the Buy More… I didn't know what I was feeling… I had never felt it before. I guess that was part of why it took me so long to tell you… why I kept giving you mixed signals. My training, both from my father and the CIA, was to suppress my emotions… don't get attached to the mark, or the asset. But no matter how much I pushed you away, you kept coming back for more. And then Prague happened… god I was mad at you. Here I put myself on the line… opened up… and you said no. I washed my hands of you, and just when I thought I had gotten rid of you, you popped back up again. And again you kept coming back no matter how many times I said no. When your red test happened, I thought I had lost you forever. The man I had loved… my chuck… was gone. You had killed a man and apparently thought nothing of it. You kept telling me it was not what I thought but I didn't believe you… I couldn't believe you… I all but saw you shoot the mole… I saw you standing over his body with a gun in your hand. Then you went and saved Shaw… because I cared about him. You loved me so much, that you risked your life to save the man I had left you for, just so I could be happy. I was so confused… how could you still be my Chuck? Then you told me you loved me… you had always loved me… you always would love me. You asked me to run away with you. You know I still didn't believe you about killing the mole, all the time I was packing to leave with you, I still didn't believe you. Then Casey showed up and told me he killed the mole. That was it… that was the moment you really saved me… you had saved my life… you had saved my heart… and you saved my soul. You made me believe in right and wrong again. You were so good… so decent… that even when you thought you might lose the woman you love, you wouldn't break your word. You couldn't tell me that Casey had killed the mole because you had promised you wouldn't. What I'm getting at is… you saved me in every way one person can save another… I love you Charles Bartowski and I always will."

With tears on both their cheeks but smiles on both their faces they kissed.

"MOM! They're kissing again… are they still trying to make a baby?"

* * *

Cole walked in the open apartment door to a scene of domestic bliss. Sarah and Emma were in the kitchen doing something or other and Chuck was on the couch with Molly watching the Thanksgiving Day parade, whispering and giggling. Just for a moment he questioned if doing what he did with his life was worth giving all this up. Could he still have it? Chuck and Sarah somehow had figured it out, could he? Have to think about that one.

"Cole. Can I get you a coffee or tea? There are croissants and English muffins also. What would you like?"

"A coffee would be great, thanks."

Taking his coffee, Cole went over and sat on the couch with Chuck and Molly.

"What are we watching?"

"This is the Thanksgiving Day parade in New York… it has balloons and floats and bands and everything. Chuck can we go see it in person some day?"

"That sounds like a great idea Molly. You know they have a big parade right here in Chicago for Thanksgiving. Maybe next year we can go see that? I'll look into it." Chuck realized that he really would like to see the parade with Molly… seeing it through the eyes of a child is really the only way to see a parade.

Voices from the hallway made everyone look as Diane and Vicky came in, shortly followed by the Bartowski/Woodcomb clan. Devon had Clara and immediately went over and sat on the floor in front of the couch to watch the parade. Molly slid down to the floor and began pointing out items of interest in the parade to Clara. Ellie and Mary sat at the island separating the kitchen from the living room. Chuck and Cole both jumped to their feet so the ladies could sit and the couch was quickly occupied by Vicky and Diane.

Cole was taking a great deal of interest in Vicky. He had never seen her like this, in this kind of relaxed, domestic setting. She was dressed casually in a flowing yellow dress and was quite fetching in Cole's eyes. She obviously felt quite safe and included. She was laughing and joking with the others, even General Beckman, who had made it quite clear that this was a social setting, that she was visiting with friends and that her name was Diane. Vicky was slyly ignoring Cole.

This was a very unique setting for all of them. Safe, secure, among people… friends… that knew exactly what they were, what they did in their lives, and didn't care, didn't judge. Normally spies had to be very cautious with what they said, always guarded in what they revealed, what they gave away, even to family… especially to family. Here they didn't have to worry about that. It was very liberating… and fun.

Chuck broke out a trivia board game and they sat around playing, taking more time telling each other stories than actually playing the game, with lots of smiles and laughing. Everyone had a grand time.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Finally told my family about this story last weekend and managed to pick up a couple of betas. My youngest daughter and a niece were super excited about this and promptly appointed themselves my editors. It's kind of fitting in that they were the ones who turned me on to Chuck in the first place.

As always thank you for the continued encouragement in the form of favorites, follows and reviews. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It really does help the authors to know what the readers are thinking about our stories. Are you getting it? Are we telling it wrong? It helps.

Don't own Chuck and not making any money on this.

Chapter 9.

After a surprising game of trivia in which Molly had the winning answer for the boys team, as she had insisted being on the same team as Chuck, they all headed down to the fourth floor. Chuck and Sarah had invited all employees who wished, to have Thanksgiving dinner with them. Snacks and appetizers on the fourth floor, then on to Marco's Restaurant for dinner around 3:00 pm.

All the cybertech youngsters who were covering the office would be there. No matter how much they were paid, a free meal was not to be missed. Half of the older techs, showed up families in tow. It was a nice change to bring their partners and kids to work for a good reason. Almost the entire security contingent, the security techs, a few also with family, were in attendence. All together there ended up being around fifty people. Everyone was security cleared so the conversations were only a little restricted, but surprisingly not all that much. All the security techs were ex alphabet, CIA, NSA, FBI, military, something,… so they knew what not to talk about. On the other hand, most of the cybertechs were ex nothing, coming to OI from either college, other cybersecurity firms or picked up by Chuck from the hacker world, but they too knew what not to talk about. If any of them knew anything, it was a computer and keeping their mouth shut.

From security to ops, husbands to progeny, the thing they all had in common was being vetted and briefed. Before they were ever hired at Orion industries they had been investigated and questioned. At any sign of something hinky, they got a dose of babble juice, with their agreement. If they refused to submit to the babble juice, they weren't hired. It was as simple as that. If you have secrets OI needed to know, you tell them, or we show you the door. It was never a pretty process, if you had skeletons, the babble juice would find them. The investigations and questioning had ended two marriages and sent three to counseling , all because of extra-marital affairs. It was a cybertech country song. They were lucky that OI was a private company. All they got was a Louisville slugger to both headlights and not a 9mm to the head. So everyone here could be trusted. Everyone knew that a number of people present either were or had been agents. Nobody asked questions that they figured could not be answered. A number of board games were going and the sectechs even started a poker game.

Chuck stepped to the front of the room. "Can I have everyone's attention? Thank you. Welcome and thanks for coming to the Orion Industries first annual Thanksgiving Day party. I'm very big on family, as some of you know, but mine actually started pretty small. It started out as just Ellie and me. It took a while, but eventually my sister accepted my best friend Morgan." he raised his drink to his smiling friend. Ellie gave Morgan a small push of her shoulder, which Morgan returned with an unabashed bear hug.

"Then Devon came along and wormed his way in."

"You know it, Bro-in-Law." the blond pointed at Chuck.

"Then the NSA and CIA were nice enough to send me John and Sarah, which eventually led to my mother coming home. That's when things really took off. Now we have all of you. Sarah and I, Ellie and Devon, John, Mary, Morgan, Alex… we consider you all family." There were nods of approval and a few hands to the heart. The members of OI were truly touched. They felt the same.

"Keep that in mind in the future, and remember that it's not always a good thing." which raised a few chuckles from the crowd. "Sure, if you do something right, we are going to be super excited for you… because you're family and we're proud of you. However, if you do something wrong, be ready for a ton of bricks to come raining down, because your big brother or your big sister is going to be really disappointed in you and will really let you have it. Just saying. Anyway, thank you all for coming." The room clapped and Sarah gave chuck a warm hug.

"Ok, ok, ok, enough with the mushy stuff, moving on. " Chuck jogged to the little dias he had mounted at the end of the room. This was going to be the Piece de resistance for this part of the day.

"Now, there's been a lot of talk around here… well bragging really… concerning VR shooter games. Cybertech thinks they've got it all going on, while Sectech assumes they're just naturally better."

"Because we are!" came a shout from the group.

"The kids are telling the old timers… and I've been told that is anyone over the age of thirty… that they just can't compete, and us old timers keep reminding the kids that experience makes all difference."

"Bring it on Old Man." Shouted a newer kid from cybertech.

"See, lots of bragging and trash talk. So we're going to have a little tournament. We're going to have three teams. Team Youngster will be anyone under the age of twenty five. Team Oldster, will be anyone over forty. Finally Team Know-it-alls will be anyone twenty five to forty. Everyone gets a turn at level one, target shooting. The top two scorers from each team will go to level two, combat range. If it's close after that, the top scorers will take a shot at level three, the attack shack. Got it? Okay, let's get started. And just to show you how easy it is… Sarah and I will lead off."

There were six VR stations set up along one wall, each with a helmet and controller. Each had a large monitor setup over the player to allow bystanders to see what the player was seeing. As the two got ready they were trash talking back and forth.

"So Miss I've-done-the-real-thing… let's see how you do here."

"Oh don't you worry Mister Hacker… I'm going to take you to school. Want to make a little side bet on this? How about dishes for a week?"

"You're on… how about another bet on who finishes first. Winner gets to drive..." looking around at the children present, Chuck quickly adds "um… your Porsche."

"Okay… first one to finish gets to drive… the car… tonight."

With a raised eyebrow and a smirk, the two don the VR goggles. Chuck calls out "Ready? 1-2-3 go."

The pair immediately begin shooting. The monitors show the score for each, how many shots have been fired, and lapsed time, so everyone can see that they are neck and neck. The cybertech's begin rooting for Chuck. Vicky, Cole, Diane, Ellie, Devon, Mary, Molly and Emma are all rooting for Sarah. The sectech's are just making noise for the hell of it.

"Really?" Chuck says in disbelieve and mock irritation, making sense of all the ruckus while still firing. "My own family rooting against me?"

Amid the laughs and cat calls, Ellie's voice comes through crystal clear "It's just that we like her better, little brother."

Finally it's over. Chuck gets back up on the dais. "Okay… you can see the scores… out of a possible 1000 points, Sarah scored 950…" a cheer went up for her supports with yells of 'top that hacker boy!' "… and my score was 949." Another cheer goes up from Sarah's supports. "However… I finished first… even if it was by less than two seconds. Okay… let's get the tournament started."

Chuck stepped off the dais into Sarah's arms for a deep kiss and a hug. Holding each other she leans in and whispers in his ear. "And how, my brave knight, did you pull that one off."

"I have no idea what you mean!"

"Come on… you let me win. You have the intersect… you could shoot a perfect score in your sleep. What I can't figure out, was how you pulled it off to only let me win by one point."

"You wrong me fair maiden… I would never stoop to dishonesty, for I am your brave knight. And I would never use the intersect for this… you vanquished me fair and square."

"Not going to tell me how you did it, are you?"

"Nope." Chuck popped the 'P'.

One of the cybertechs had a database organized with everyone who wanted to participate. All the younger cybertechs signed up and even some of the older ones. The company's oldest cybertech had three grown children who all signed up… plus some of the younger children… even some of the wives joined in the fun, one woman was convinced she could out shoot her veteran of a husband and was relishing the fact that she could once and for all prove it. Of course ALL the sectechs signed up. The competition amongst the sectechs was just as fierce as the aged based competition Chuck had set up. He was thrilled that his idea was taking off.

When round one was over, the top two from each team was announced. A lot of jostling and catcalls sounded as the under twenty five winners were announced. Not surprising, one of them was a marksmen among the sectechs. The other was a young cybertech female. Close behind were two children, a boy and a girl, barely in their teens. In the middle group, two of the younger cybertech's were first and second, beating out two of the sectechs by a handful of points. Finally the over forty group was announced. A wife of another cybertech had top score. She was a real surprise till everyone found out she had spent eight years as a Marine, ending her tenure as a DI. The other was a sectech.

No one had come close to Chuck and Sarah's scores… the highest being one of the sectech's who scored 935. That lead to a round of cheers and jeers from… well everyone, and a lot of good natured ribbing.

As Chuck expected the two groups mixed well. When he and Casey recruited for their respective divisions, they looked for competence in their field of operations, but also for team players and for individuals who would fit in at OI. The sectechs were not cold hearted mercenaries, brutal and brutish… rather they were more like defending warriors. They tended to be ferociously loyal, duty bound and steadfast.

The cybertech's tended to be family oriented. They either had families, were trying to start families or wanted to belong to a family. Especially the young hackers… they were the ones that needed to belong to something. Chuck was careful to give them that… give them a family that respected them, accepted them, looked out for them and loved them. He wasn't kidding about the family thing. All of them knew that. Chuck had demonstrated that with Mike Taylor. Mike was an exceptional individual, and though he was an excellent cybertech, his interest was not in security… it was in games. He was wasted at OI, so Chuck backed him in opening his own video game company. He was a living example of Orion Industries looking out for it's family. OI might be a kickass scary 'family', it wasn't the Mafia. If you weren't happy, or had other prospects, you were encouraged to go for them.

The thing they all had in common, that deep in their hearts they all had, was they all considered themselves paladins… defenders of a noble cause… warriors for good. Most of them would not come out and say it, but they were romantics… believers in right and wrong, good and evil. Whether it was with a keyboard or a carbine, they wanted to fight for the right… they wanted to BELIEVE in good.

That was why when Chuck and Sarah moved to the other end of the common room from the VR stations, and went out on the little dance floor to begin gliding around, more and more employees turned to silently watch the couple, clinging together, both with their eyes closed, essentially just hugging to the music. Everyone knew some version of their history, some more than others. All knew some part of what each had gone through to get to this point in their lives. The abandonments, the betrayals, the pain, the trials… but also the steadfastness, loyalty, the refusal to abandon each other, the partnership… the love. So when the song ended and the couple stood looking into each other's eyes, the applause caught them completely by surprise. Everyone thought it was so cute the way they both blushed.

Laughing, Chuck bowed theatrically and Sarah did a curtsy. Chuck whispered in Sarah's ear. The pair approached the Woodcomb's. Chuck had Ellie pass Clara to Mary, then led her to the dance floor, as Sarah led Devon out. The music, provided by one of Morgan's more appropriate playlists, started a medium beat jazz piece as the four began to dance. Mary, holding Clara's hand, went and sat at a table with Emma. The two mothers knew each other but not all that well.

"Emma… I want to thank you for… well, for being a mother to Chuck. I know Ellie raised him, but I also realize that you've been more of a mother to him this last year than I have been in quite some time. Thank you."

Emma smiled and nodded. "It's really easy being a mother to Chuck. He is such a loving man, kind, respectful. And he has been such a god-send to Sarah… he is exactly what she needed. But I want to thank you also… Chuck has told me a little of what Sarah has been doing the last six months, and how you have been watching over her, keeping her as safe as you could. Thank you."

"You are most welcome." Mary reached out and squeezed Emma's hand in mutual appreciation and understanding. "Sarah is a wonderful woman, and I am so glad she has come back to us. Has anyone ever told you how she saved me?" Emma raised eyebrows told Mary she hadn't.

"You know I was with the CIA as well. I was trapped in a long term undercover assignment and couldn't get out. Sarah went undercover as a rogue agent and together, we, with Chuck's plan, ended the threat and she got me out." She looked at her family out on the dance floor in utter admiration and renewed motherly affection. "It was she that saved me at the end."

Emma smiled and nodded also looking at the happy couple and the family they had made. "That's what family does."

"Yes… I'm learning that… well relearning I guess. It feels really wonderful."

Back on the dance floor, the song was just ending. The two couples made their way over to the table where Emma and Mary sat. Ellie took Clara and began to mingle, letting the ladies in the crowd 'oh' and 'ah' over the baby. Chuck got a phone call and excused himself to take it. He spoke for a few seconds then hung up.

"Sarah, we need to greet a visitor." Chuck guided Sarah toward the elevator.

"Who?" she asked puzzled, everyone they could possibly know were in the room they just left. Just as they got to the elevator, the doors opened.

"SAHARA!" the guest shouted.

"CARINA?" Sarah returned not believing her eyes.

The two best friends hugged fiercely, bouncing and crying. Chuck began guiding them back to the table and got them seated, still hugging and left the two to catch up.

"Where did you come from?" Sarah finally asked.

"Chuckles called Zondra and I last week. We didn't think either of us could make it, but I finished my assignment yesterday. That still didn't help. No way I was going to be able to get here much before Sunday, but Chuckles hired me a private jet and here I am." Sarah shared a glance with Chuck from across the room who was always watching out for her. She shook her head and mouthed "Thank you" and he winked. How was she this lucky? How did she almost forget him forever?

"Well, it is so good to see you!" Sarah said returning her attention back to her friend wiping a tear from her eye.

"Never mind me… how are you? Chuckles filled us in on what happened six months ago and has been keeping us up to date. Zondra made sure she steered clear because the last thing you would have remembered was you hated her. I tried to catch you a few times in DC but we never managed to connect."

"I wish we had… I could have used a night out with a friend. It was a kind of lonely six months, but it worked out in the end… I'm back and Chuck and I are together."

"Um… do you know how much he missed you?"

"Yeah… I know he was really hurting."

"Did he tell you I came to visit right after you left?" Sarah shook her head and Carina continued.

"I stayed for a week or so. This was back in Burbank. Ellie and Devon had left for Chicago, Casey was in Europe looking for Gertrude, and Chuck sent Morgan and Alex to Chicago to start setting up Orion Industries, so Chuck was pretty much alone. When I got there he looked like hell. He hadn't slept for a couple of days and I don't think he'd had all that much to eat either. He was trying to get the whole MAR team set up to watch over you before they sent you back into the field and he was well on his way to working himself to death."

It was all Sarah could do, to keep from crying.

"Everytime he tried to sleep alone, he woke up with nightmares. The only way I could get him to sleep was… um… to sleep with him. So I held him… the first couple of times I held him all night. After that he could sleep as long as I was with him… that lasted a couple more days, then after that he was okay."

Sarah sniffled and wiped at her eyes. "He… never told me that."

"He was probably afraid that you would kick his ass… then kick my ass… then kick his ass again."

Tears now running down her cheeks Sarah smiled at her best friend. "Yeah… that was probably it. Thank you girl… you're a good friend."

"Welcome kid. Just don't make a habit of this, because next time I'm in bed with that stud muffin we're going to do a lot more than sleep. Just so you know. I mean, I have a reputation to uphold."

Sarah took Carina around, introducing her to friends and family. Sparks seemed to fly when Sarah introduced her to Cole, but then the icy look from Vicky doused the sparks pretty effectively. Sarah got her out of there quickly and brought her over to Ellie to gush over Clara. Sarah left her in Ellie's capable hands and went to look for Chuck.

Sarah saw him in the crowd. She needed to be with him, they had lost so much time together, she vowed to never take this for granted. At first she was going to join him, but she stopped herself to watch him work the crowd. Chuck mingled with the employee's, talking to this group or that individual. Not surprising, a number of the young cybertech's, especially the ex-hackers, were VERY shy. When Chuck came upon one sitting alone, he would stop to chat for a while, then gently guide the individual to join a group or a family. He would stay for a while to make the shy one comfortable, then moved on. Sarah watched him do this three separate times, and each time her heart swelled with pride. How could one man really be that thoughtful, that kind… it was truly amazing.

Then she noticed a young woman sitting alone. The girl look startled when Sarah approached her.

"Hello… I'm Sarah. I sorry, I don't know everyone's name yet, but I remember you from when Alex took me around. You work in Payables don't you?"

"Yes, ma'am… I'm Sandra Kelly… Sandy. It's nice to see you again Mrs. Bartowski."

"Please call me Sarah… we're not at work, we're all just friends here. And definitely not Ma'am. So… how long have you been with us Sandy?"

"Only… only a month Mrs. Bar… um… Sarah."

"And how do you like it?"

A smile split the girls face. "Oh it's great. Miss Alex is wonderful to work for. If you don't know something, she is so patient explaining it. And all the guys and girls are great, and we have so much fun. But…" The girl looked beyond nervous, like she had worked up the courage to say something but halfway through punked out.

"But what Sandy… it's okay you can tell me." Sarah assured her.

Sandy lowered her voice and leaned in. "Well, I went up to the second floor once to see Colonel Casey about something… and… well those people scare me. They are all so big and gruff and loud. And Colonel Casey just grunts and stares holes in you… it's frightening." Sarah tried not to laugh as the girl truly looked concerned.

"He did, did he? I'll tell you a secret Sandy. Casey is a great big teddy bear." Sandy gave her doubtful look.

"Did you know that Alex is his daughter?"

"NO… I didn't know that. But she's so nice and gentle and kind… and he's so… well… not."

"Yeah, well… you won't think she's so gentle when I tell her what you said."

"Oh please don't… she'll be mad and Colonel Casey will be mad and I'll get in trouble."

"No dear… the only one in trouble is Casey. You'll see how gentle Alex is when she kicks Casey's ass for scaring you. You just watch. And about the sectech's. Yes, they are big and loud and scary looking, but I'll tell you another secret… they're some of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. And trust me on this… no one will ever bother you with one of them around. We're all on the same team here. They're the good guys. Do you go up to the second floor to exercise?"

"Um… no. I… gyms and exercise never… well, no I never have."

"You need to try it. It's fun and it's good for you, and it's a great way to destress after dealing with some idiot. And I know just the person to help you." Sarah stood and looked around, then waved a woman over. "Sandy, this is Julie." Julie stood 5' 9" and looked to weigh around one hundred ninety pounds of solid muscle… just exactly the type that Sandy was talking about being scary.

Julie stuck her hand out and gently took Sandy's hand. "Hi Sandy… it's nice to meet you." Julie sat down. She knew how intimidating she looked, looming over someone, especially someone like this poor girl. "Ohhhh, I like that blouse… the color is just right to go with your eyes." Laughing she said "Just stay away from my boyfriend, I have enough trouble hanging on to him without a little cuttie like you hanging around."

Smiling, Sarah said "Julie, I was just telling Sandy she should go up to second floor to exercise, but she's new and doesn't know what to do. Could you help her out?"

"Oh sure." Looking Sandy up and down, Julie went on. "You're pretty slim already so probably just some walking and little weight training is all you'll need to get started. Give me a call Monday, we'll have some fun… you'll see. Say… have you met Brandon? He just came on with us. Just got out of the Army after a double hitch. Come on I'll introduce you."

With that Julie was off with Sandy in tow. Sarah smiled as she rose. She turned and walked right into Chuck who was standing quietly behind her.

"Nice job Mrs. Bartowski."

"I got the idea from you Mr. Bartowski." A kiss and a quick hug, was all they had time for before Chuck's watch went off.

Chuck raised his voice. "Everyone… we can start heading down to Marco's Restaurant."

As everyone started migrating toward the elevators and stairs, Chuck looked at Sarah with his lopsided grin.

"Sahara?"

"Yeah. Carina's got a nickname for everyone. I was always pretty stingy with my relationships so Sahara… Hot during the day, ice cold at night and unforgiving all the time."

Chuck thought for a second then snickered. "Yeah… that's about right."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Another fluff chapter before we get to the action. Just finishing off the Thanksgiving weekend.

Still don't own Chuck.

Chapter 10.

Thanksgiving dinner was a huge success and Marco's didn't clear out till after seven. The family went to Ellie and Devon's apartment after for drinks, not wrapping up there till after ten. Sarah had told Chuck about the little display with Vicky when Sarah introduced Carina to Cole, so both were kind of interested in what was going to happen… interested and a little apprehensive… and maybe a little excited, if the truth be known. But as the night wound up, Vicky, Cole, Carina and Diane all headed out for their apartment together. They were all in the guest apartment on the eighth floor which had four bedrooms. Sarah looked at Chuck with a little trepidation, but what the hell…

After getting ready for bed, Sarah grabbed Chuck in a fierce hug.

"Thank you for getting Carina here. I didn't realize how much I missed the little minx."

"Yeah… I was a little scared to get the two of you together again, but it had to happen sometime and at least this way I had plenty of help around. Plus Casey wasn't here and that always helps when dealing with Carina."

"She told me you slept with her right after I left. Couldn't wait till I was gone could you."

"What? No… wait… we didn't… well I mean we did… but not that way… and you're messing with me!"

Laughing Sarah stopped him with a kiss. "Chuckles… calm down. You are so easy. I know nothing happened. She wouldn't try it and you wouldn't do it. I… I'm sorry for what I put you through… I can't say that enough. I'm sorry."

"Are you really sorry?"

"Yes… I'm really sorry."

"Because if Sahara is really sorry there's something she can do for Chuckles."

"Oh really… and what can Sahara do for Chuckles?"

Chuck threw her onto the bed then crawled in on top of her. "Sahara can be real quiet making love to Chuckles, because Emma and Molly are just down the hall." Chuck tickled her side, and she barked a laugh and squealed, before clamping her hands over her mouth. "Sahara needs to be a lot quieter than that."

Black Friday. Ellie and Sarah had put their heads together and decided that this was the perfect day for a girls outing. And that meant everyone... well, all the girls anyway. They planned on taking one of the stretch limo's to accommodate the whole crew; Ellie, Sarah, Carina, Vicky, Diane, Emma and Mary. They even shanghaied Anne and Julie as the security team, to drive them. Of course that meant that Chuck, Devon and Cole, had Molly and Clara. Cole heard that and remembered he had old friends in Chicago that he hadn't seen in years. Chuck told him to at least be back for Sunday, because Chuck had gotten an executive suite at Soldier Field for them all to see a Bears football game.

The girls were up early Friday morning, nothing ridiculous, but early for a non-work day. Chuck got up with Sarah and made breakfast for everyone; eggs, bacon, sausage, home fries, toast and pancakes. Ellie left Devon and Clara sleeping, Molly slept through the whole thing, and Cole had already taken off, so basically it was just the ladies and Chuck. Everyone was talking about what a good time they all had the previous day as they served themselves and sat down. Sarah noticed that Vicky and Carina sat next to each other and were whispering back and forth, giggling and laughing. Sarah gave Chuck a look that he returned… _what's going on?_ Finally, Sarah couldn't stand it any longer.

"What is going on with you two?"

"What?"

"Don't give me that 'What?'… you just met and you're acting like a couple of old friends, giggling… laughing… I don't know about Vicky, but Carina, you never giggle. Give… what's going on?"

"Well… if you must know… and just between us girls… Cole tried to get us to… well he said he couldn't decide… he wanted us BOTH to sleep with him."

"WHAT?"

"That's pretty much what we said. Well it kind of pissed us both off so we decided to see if he was as susceptible to seduction techniques as any other male. He was. We played him for… what Vicky… two hours?"

"Yeah… it must have been close to 12:00 am when we went to bed."

"We had him totally convinced that he would have us BOTH. We went into extremely graphic detail about what was going to happen, with the three of us. We kept that going for an hour or so. Then we started acting like we were getting into each other rather than him. That went on for just under an hour. The best part is that I slept in Vicky's room, and for the last 10 minutes we gave him ALL kinds of ideas of what was going to happen without him. Serves him right… both of us. Some ego."

That got the whole table roaring with laughter… and got Chuck cringing in the kitchen. Man… don't ever piss a woman off… they can be MEAN… and Cole managed to piss off two of them at the same time.

Finally the girls were ready to leave. Sarah promised they'd be home in time for dinner at 6:00… then backtracked and said they SHOULD be home for dinner at 6:00… then said they MIGHT be home for dinner, AROUND 6:00… then finally admitted that she had no idea what time they'd be home. Chuck decided on Chinese takeout for dinner. If the girls weren't back by 7:00 he'd send it down to the fourth floor.

Devon woke up around 9:00 am, and brought Clara over to Chuck's. Molly had just woken up so Chuck made a second breakfast from the remains of the first one. The weather was beautiful, especially for November, so the guys took the kids to the park for some running around time. They got back to the apartment around noon, but in the elevator on the way up, Devon got a phone call.

"Dr. Woodcomb. Yes… yes… no I… yes... hold on. Um… Chuck? Can you take care of Clara. I've got an emergency."

"No problem. Molly and I can take care of Clara… right squirt?"

"Sure! We'll have fun… we can play dress up and have a tea party…"

"See… we'll be fine. Rebecca?"

"Yes Mr. B."

"Please have a car brought around to the front for Devon."

"Certainly… Dr. Woodcomb, will you need the driver to wait?"

"I don't think so Rebecca. This sounds like it's going to be a while, so I'll call when I'm done."

When they hit the eighth floor, Devon didn't even get out of the elevator, he just kissed Clara goodby, passed her to Chuck and stayed on the elevator. Chuck spent the day taking care of Clara and entertaining Molly. They played video games, watched a movie, Molly had a great time using Chuck as a dressup doll. As Chuck expected, 6:00 pm came and went with no signs of the gaggle, so Chuck fed the girls. 7:00 came and went, so Chuck had the Chinese food taken down to four, bathed Clara and put her to bed. He and Molly played video games till Molly's bed time. Then it was just Chuck. Just after 9 o'clock, Diane, Emma and Mary, showed up.

"Hello Chuck… where's Molly?"

"Hi Emma. In bed… it's past her bed time."

"What time is it? Oh my… we were having such a time… I'm so sorry Chuck."

"It's okay Emma, where's the rest of the crew?"

"Well Mary, Diane and I come back because we're exhausted. Mary went to check on Clara, then she was going to bed and Diane said she was going to bed. The girls dropped us off and were going to a dance club… lord knows when they'll be home. And me… I'm going to bed also. Good night Chuck."

"Night Emma."

It was a little early to go to bed so Chuck went back to the video games, this time opting for Call of Duty. Chuck must have fallen asleep because the next thing he was aware of was the girls coming down the hallway, making a racket telling each other to be quiet so they won't wake the children. Getting to the doorway, Sarah and Ellie, arm-in-arm, stepped inside to let Vicky and Carina, also arm-in-arm, stagger by them headed for their rooms.

Ellie was slurring her words just a touch. "Chuck? Where's Devon? Did he go to bed?"

"No Ellie… he's at the hospital. He had an emergency… and after finishing the first one, a second one came in so he stayed rather the let them disturb someone else. He called a little while ago to tell me that a third had come in and he figured that since he was there…"

"When did all this happen?"

"Oh… poor guy's been there all day. He got the call around noon… we were just getting back from the park and were still in the elevator."

Sarah realized what he was saying. "You mean to tell me you've had both girls all day alone? Why didn't you call?"

"Why? I assumed you guys were having fun, or you would have come home. The girls and I had fun."

"Chuck… are you wearing lipstick?"

"Um… we played dress up and Molly got a little carried away. Guess I didn't get it all off."

"God you are going to be such a good father."

"Yeah, that's fine if we have girls… what the heck do I do if they're boys."

"Oh… same thing… just different games."

Saturday was going to be a couples day. Chuck and Sarah, Ellie and Devon, and Cole and Vicky. Unfortunately, Cole never showed up so they just plugged Carina in for Cole. Chuck had the day all planned out. A long leisurely breakfast, followed by some exercise at the climbing wall, then off to the Navy Pier for the SOFA art show. Next, a late lunch at the Shake Shack downtown, followed by a wine tasting. After that they could either do dinner or go to the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers, then dinner after.

It was Ellie's turn to cook so the couples all had breakfast at the Awesome's apartment. Emma and Molly were going to help Mary take care of Clara, and Diane wanted to visit some friends in the area. Unlike Cole, her friends were real, so it was just the three 'couples' at breakfast. Again, Vicky and Carina sat next to each other, whispering and giggling all through breakfast. While Ellie and Devon cleaned up, the other four sat around drinking mimosa's. Vicky went to the bathroom, and as soon as she was gone Sarah swooped in on Carina.

In something of a stage whisper Sarah started in "Carina… did you sleep with Vicky again last night."

"Um… well yeah… so what… we were both pretty drunk and I just couldn't make it to my bed."

"Yeah right… you weren't that drunk. You _slept_ with Vicky didn't you."

Chuck finally realized what Sarah meant. "Oh… Carina… come on fess up."

"Come on Carina… I know you go both ways."

"Okay yes… Vicky and I had sex last night… and yes we had sex the night before also. We really got into telling Cole what we were going to do without him. After the door shut, and we finished laughing our asses off at his expression, we started getting ready for bed, and we kind of hemmed and hawed, and finally admitted to each other that we really wanted to do all the stuff we just told Cole we were going to do… so we kind of did. Turns out that Vicky is just as bi-sexual as I am, and she is so nice, and we had such a great time together both in bed and out and I just get so tired of men taking advantage and not living up to expectations and the agency expecting me to... well you know. So yes… we really like each other and we slept together."

Carina looked at the floor. When she looked back up Sarah and Chuck were both smiling. Sarah leaned over and hugged her best friend.

"Carina, we are happy for you. I know you might get crap… so just don't say anything. You both are invited to visit us any time you like… and if it happens that's at the same time, well, all the better."

By this point Vicky came back from the bathroom. Carina rose and much to Vicky's surprise kissed her. Vicky was shocked, franticly looking around at everyone watching, then looked at Carina and realized everyone was smiling.

"Awesome!" came from the kitchen, which completely broke the last of the tension.

Everybody went back to chatting and sipping mimosa's. Sarah leaned over and whispered in Chuck's ear.

"What do you think?"

"We'll have to give her an intest to be sure, but she is intelligent enough and her memory seems excellent. Do you want to bring her in house or put her on one of the agency teams?"

"Ummm. I think an agency team. Coming in house would be the same as retiring, and I don't think she's ready for that."

"Agreed. Me or you."

"I'll do it."

Sarah sat up straight and looked over at Carina. "Carina, there's something I would like to talk to you about. Um… how much do you know about what I've been doing for the last six months."

"Not much. I know it was some kind of Rescue team, completing busted missions and rescuing agents."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Well, Orion Industries has been contracted by a consortium of agencies to re-establish this project and expand it. Would you be interested in joining the project?"

"Is Vicky joining?"

"Yes. We haven't decided which team yet, but yes she will continue her role as one of the field agents."

"Can I be on her team?"

"If you like! We can put you on the same team."

"Can you promise that? I mean can you just assign agents as you like?"

Chuck cut in at this point. "Carina… we have full discretion as far as recruiting and placement of the agents. You should have seen the steam coming from General Beckman's ears when Sarah insisted on that clause. She was not pleased but she finally agreed."

"Carina, we actually have told you more than we should already. Would you like to join? Oh… and I should mention that there will be some 'special' training."

"Is this the same kind of 'special' training that Chuckles had all those years?"

"Um… what do you mean?"

"Come on Sahara. The two top agents from the CIA and the NSA are assigned to snorsville USA for a long term mission with Chuckles as their 'analyst'? He obviously was an asset… but what kind of asset would need both you and Casey to hold his hand? You guys were his bodyguards. How important must he be to have both Sarah Walker and John Casey as his bodyguards? Then there were all those rumors flying around about something called the 'intersect', some kind of human-computer. One and one still equals two."

Chuck looked over at Sarah and chuckled. "Told you she was intelligent enough!"

"And to answer your question… yes, I'm in."

So now it was again truly a couple's day. Chuck didn't want to completely ruin any of the sectech's weekend, but was still paranoid enough that he didn't want to go without a security team so he had arraigned for three separate teams to cover different times of the day. Plus they were going to both wine tasting and a beer tasting, so they needed a driver. But first the climbing wall. Devon was the expert here, and Ellie had done it enough with him to be quite good. Sarah, of course, was a natural athlete and had had some training, as had Carina. Vicky was the surprise having spent almost a year deployed with the 10th Mountain Division. Even though the division itself no longer had climb training, the junior officers had a climbing club. So that left poor Chuck as the only one with only limited training and no experience. Yes, it was in the intersect, but he didn't like using the intersect for personal stuff like this.

The place was called First Ascent and it boasted one of the highest climbing walls in the country, almost 60 feet tall. Devon was a regular and talked the manager into giving them a secluded section off by themselves. At the moment, Devon was checking Chuck's equipment, while a nervous Chuck tried to keep his hands dry.

"Whose great idea was this anyway… oh wait… that's right it was mine. What the heck was I thinking."

"Oh don't worry Chuckster! It'll be awesome. Come on."

They had split up three and three. Ellie with Carina and Vicky had already started on the right face, Carina, as the least experienced, between Ellie and Vicky, and Chuck between Sarah and Devon on the left face. Sarah, already ten feet up, stopped to look down.

"Come on Chuck… you only weigh like a hundred pounds… this should be easy."

"Ha… ha… very funny… if I kill myself on this thing I'm coming back to haunt all of you."

Tenuously, Chuck began his ascent. Slowly he selected his next step then moved cautiously. Another step… then another. He figured he had to be fifteen or twenty feet up by now. Looking down he realized that he was only eight feet off the floor… this was going to be a long climb.

"You guys go ahead… I think this is going to take me a while. I'm on a safety line so it's not like I can get hurt, so go ahead."

"Are you sure Chuck? I can stay here with you and let Devon go ahead."

"No. Go ahead… I know you want to… I'll be fine."

"Well okay." Looking over at Devon, Sarah gives him a saucy smile. "Race you to the top, Devon."

"You're on. Hey… no fair." As soon as Devon had said okay, Sarah lunged for her next handhold and was off, climbing the rock face like a monkey going up a tree. Devon was by far more experienced, but Sarah had some training and actually seemed to be in better condition than Devon, if that was possible. The pair raced up the rock face.

Chuck grinned and laughed, watching his wife race his brother-in-law, Capt. Awesome himself, up the wall. Cautiously, Chuck planed his next move. He moved his left hand, and his right foot, got a good grip and moved up the wall. Right hand and left foot. Left… right.

"Say… this isn't so hard." He realized there was nobody around to hear him. The other five were all pretty much half way up the wall. Looking up to see how Sarah and Devon were doing, he leaned back a little too much and lost his grip. Now normally this would not have been an issue. He was on a belay line and the most he should have fallen was a couple of feet before the belay man down below caught him. Unfortunately, when Chuck stopped to look around, his belay man, Frank, figured it was safe and turned to grab a water bottle from his pack. Chuck only fell about fifteen feet, but it was enough to knock the wind out of him and daze him, leaving him spread eagle on the floor.

Up above, Sarah and Devon were laughing and trash talking back and forth, when Sarah momentarily looked down.

"CHUCK! DEVON… CHUCK FELL!"

To his credit, Devon was only about three seconds behind Sarah hitting the floor. Instincts for both kicked in. Sarah immediately went into Agent mode. She went into a defensive stance with a huge, wicked looking Bowie style knife in her right hand that had appeared from nowhere, scanning the area looking for threats. Devon went into Doctor mode, immediately went to Chuck and began checking him. Within fifteen seconds, Ellie was beside Devon, and Vicky and Carina were on either side of Sarah. As soon as her backup was in place, Sarah flipped her knife to Carina, took two steps, latched onto Chuck's belay man Frank and roughly flipped him onto his back between Vicky and Carina. Sarah didn't take her eyes off Frank, simply put her hand up and her knife came flying into it like it was Thor's hammer. When Frank opened his eyes Sarah's knife was resting on his carotid artery. A flick of the wrist and Frank would be dead in ten seconds.

"WHY DID YOU DROP CHUCK? WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?" Sarah pressed the blade down a little and Frank started to whimper, sweet popping out on his forehead, eyes bulging. Everything had happened so fast that the climbers around them had not yet realized what was going on. The other safety men and the manager, who ran up, all looked on aghast at the scene of one of their employees on the floor with a knife to his throat.

The manager tried to take control of what was obviously a bad situation. "What's going on? Please release that man." Sarah turned to stare at the manager, and the look on her face caused everyone to gasp and take a step back. A momma bear protecting her cub wasn't half as terrifying as Sarah was at that moment. They were a heartbeat away from a three state killing spree.

"Sarah. It's okay." Chuck was sitting up.

Sarah was not to be appeased. "Answer the question. Who do you work for?"

Tenuously Frank stuttered out "First Ascent".

Looking at the manager Sarah said "How long has this man worked for you?"

The highly confused manager said "Um… almost two years?"

Sarah began to calm down. Chuck had gotten up by this point and she rose and went to him. Somehow the knife disappeared. She ran her hands all over him, like she was making sure he was OK. Chuck whispered in Sarah's ear and she nodded. Chuck moved with Devon following, leaving Sarah with Ellie, and walked over to the Manager.

"My apologies about that, but we've had some threats and we do have a number of enemies, so my bodyguards are naturally on edge."

Vicky and Carina were standing just behind Chuck, scowling. At some point the security team had gotten on scene and were standing with their backs to Chuck and the group, scanning the room, machine pistols in hand. The manager looked at them, then at Sarah, gulped audibly and said "They're your bodyguards? All of them?"

"Well the blond is my wife… but yeah… and trust me, you don't want to say anything they'll take offense to. Neither of these two…" gesturing to Carina and Vicky "…have shot anybody in like two weeks and they're getting antsy. Now Frank… what happened?"

Stammering Frank tried to answer. "I just turned away for a second, sir… I'm sorry, sir. You were stopped looking around… I'm so sorry… you looked like you were resting… I just turned for a second to get some water… I'm SO sorry sir."

"Okay… it's okay Frank… no harm done… just an accident. Dan… you're the manager? Sorry about the scene… we'll pack up and go."

"Oh no… please sir… please stay. This is entirely our fault, sir. Dr. Woodcomb, please sir… please stay. I don't want this incident to hamper your enjoyment. Please stay."

The entire episode happened so fast that hardly anyone had noticed so Chuck decided to talk to Sarah and the group before they decide whether to stay or go. The whole group huddled up.

Looking at Carina and Vicky, Chuck guffawed quietly. "Well you two don't have quite the intimidation factor as Casey… but you'er close, thanks. What do you say group? Want to stay? I had figured we would be here another hour at least… maybe two."

Everyone kind of looked at each other.

Not getting a response, Chuck said "Was everyone having a good time?" When everyone nodded, reluctantly maybe but still agreeing, Chuck said "Well then let's not let my clumsiness spoil our fun."

"Chuck are you really okay? Ellie… Devon… what do you say?" Sarah of course wasn't going to let it go THAT easy.

"He's perfectly fine. With the padding and helmet we have on him, he could fall twenty or thirty feet and be just fine."

"Okay but this time I'm staying with you." Turning, she looked at Frank. Chuck can see her thinking about what to do. Frank pales and actually looks like he might faint.

Chuck smiles and takes Sarah by the hand. "It'll be okay. I don't think Frank will ever take his eyes off his climber again… will you Frank?"

"NO SIR! Never again."

They tie back in and begin their accent. It took a while but Chuck actually made it to the top.

After the climbing wall they headed over to the SOFA show at the Navy Pier. The Sculptured Object Functional Art and Design show was really something to see. Chuck had already checked with Alex and got her 'permission' to decorate the lobby and Sarah's office. Chuck was having a great time picking the most hideous pieces then presenting them to Sarah as great works of art, and telling her she should use the piece in her office. Sarah was baffled at first, thinking Chuck was serious and trying to figure out how to tell him how ugly the art work he choose was, without hurting his feelings. Soon enough she realized he was teasing and relaxed. As soon as Chuck recognized that Sarah had picked up on his game, he stopped and they got down to the business of actually buying some pieces for her office and the lobby.

As big as the show was, sooner or later it was bound to happen… Chuck flashed on one of the pieces. It had been stolen in Europe eight months before. How it ended up in Chicago was anyone's guess and not their concern. Chuck put a call into the Precinct Captain who was their liaison with the Chicago PD. Fifteen minutes later a very confused looking Detective showed up with a couple of uniforms. Chuck had one of their security team, Carlos, meet them, ID himself as a PI and fill in the Detective. Not wanting to have anyone from Orion Industries involved, Chuck had Carlos tell the Detective to take all the credit for discovering the stolen piece and to not mention a tip. Evidently the Detective had been advised to just cooperate because he just nodded and proceeded to the dealer. The whole crew stood off to the side watching. It looked like the Detective wasn't satisfied with the dealer's answers to questions, because the next thing they knew, the dealer was in cuffs and being led off. A couple of days later the paper reported that the dealer was a major fence for stolen goods and Chicago PD was well on it's way to shutting down a whole organization of fences and smugglers.

Chuck looked aghast at Carina. "What do you mean you don't understand football? Didn't you go to college?"

The whole crew were in a luxury executive box at Chicago's Soldier Field. Wait staff moved through the crowd, dispensing drinks and hors devours. The remnants of a buffet was laid out against one wall, that they had already demolished.

"Of course I went to college… I was just more interested in things other than sports. I mean I liked the jocks… just had no interest in the 'games' they played… outside of the games in the bedroom that is."

"Jezz Carina… I'm a nerd and at least I understand the game. I never played and have no real interest in it, but at least I understand the rules."

"Sorry… just never had the interest. Okay… if it means some much to you, explain it to me."

"ME? NO! I'm not explaining it to you. Get Casey to explain it… he probably played in High School."

"Yeah right. I can just hear that explanation. Grunt Whoever has the most points wins, moron. Grunt That's not going to help me appreciate the game."

"How about Devon… or even Ellie? They are both big fans."

"Oh come on Chuckie… it'll be way more fun with you."

"Sarah… you explain it to her."

"ME? I hardly understand it myself. How am I supposed to explain it to her?"

"Okay… I suppose… Okay Carina, the object of the game is to score points by getting the ball into the other teams end zone. When a team has possession they have four tries to go ten yards."

"Oh… and that scores the points?"

"Um, no… that gives them four more tries to go ten yards."

"What? Why would they want to only go ten yards. I thought the object was to get to the other end?"

Chuck just looked at her for a moment… "This is going to be a long day."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. Yes, I thought about making the football discussion longer, but I'm doing some oneshots in this universe and that might be a good one. Okay... on to the action. Three more chapters for this story with a couple of oneshots already started.

Chapter 11

 _ **The week following Thanksgiving.**_

Casey walked into the assembly and one of the sectechs yelled "ATTENTION ON DECK!" The audience didn't jump to their feet and come to attention, but everyone silenced immediately and sat a little straighter, paying attention to the dais. The entire Orion Industries staff was either present or watching via Closed Circuit TV.

"Welcome and thank you for coming. This is the first all company briefing. The intent is to have these once a month or so, as necessary to keep everyone up to date on what is happening within the company."

"First on the agenda: as most of you know, we will be resurrecting the MAR team project on a grander scale. All of you will be probably be involved in one way or another. OI will be involved with training, command and control, intelligence analysis and as a secondary assault team. Because of this, we are expanding cyber division to add a Data Analysis and Integration section to collect and analyze intelligence information for the project. We will be directly fed intelligence data from a number of Agency's as well as our own collection network and the DAI team will correlate and integrate that data for our use on missions. We also will feed back to our clients, any intelligence tidbits that we glean. Anyone wishing to apply for transfer from their current assignment to DAI let Chuck know by e-mail. You must have at least a 5.5 intest score to apply for DAI. Part of the job will be encoding and creating updates, as well as loading yourself to do analysis.

"Now… there will be four MAR teams… well five really. London, Washington D.C. and Casa Grande, in southern Arizona, will each have an operational team, staffed by the agencies. The fourth team, a replacement and training team, will be located in San Diego, California, and will also be staffed with agency personnel. Orion Industries will operate the fifth team as a backup team with a double tacteam and agents, staffed by us. The OI team will be kept as clandestine as possible. All teams will be trained and commanded by Orion Industries. Any questions see Chuck or myself after the meeting."

"In addition to the DAI section transfers, we will accept applications for anyone who would like to train as a field agent or field analyst. We will be in need of four or five field personnel for our backup team, plus reserve members. This is not restricted to sectechs. Any cybertech who feels they can handle the physical aspects of being a field agent may apply."

"There are a number of interesting things going on in the Science Division, including a new body armor that is very effective. The armor is used in layers. The lowest layer is a light weight full body suit made of a three part fiber using Kevlar, nomex and a nanofiber we developed called nanolex. Not only is this fiber very puncture resistant, it stiffens a section of the suit approximately three (3) inches across to spread the force of the bullet strike. If you've ever taken a round in body armor you know how important spreading the force can be. The suit is in pieces, so agents can modify it depending on what kind of outer clothing they are wearing. They can go from just the torso to full protection including hands, feet and head. A second layer of protection is a BDU outfit made of the same material but three times the density of the body suit. Lastly, the BDU has pouches into which ceramic plates can be inserted. At the highest level this armor will resist projectiles up to medium machine gun rounds.

We also are using VR gaming technology and software to improve visibility and targeting capability. The new helmets we have issued to the sectechs have this tech incorporated and believe me it is very effective. Day, night, dust, smoke, bad weather, fog, snow… the new tech sees through it all using a variety of means, merging all the different inputs into a display that is projected to the inside of the helmet. The sights on all weapons connect to the helmet via Bluetooth and show an aiming pip on the projection, allowing for actual shooting from behind cover. The targeting computer in the helmet will even allow shooters to effectively engage aerial targets out to the range of their weapon."

Casey looks up and notices Chuck pull his phone out, then quickly exit the auditorium with Sarah. Time to cut this short and wrap it up.

"The new customers list is posted on the company common drive with customer profiles… please review it. And finally I want to introduce some new employees." Casey has each new person stand while he introduces them. At this point, Casey had intended to take questions, instead he dismisses the meeting and goes in search of Chuck and Sarah. He finds them in a secure conference room in Castle. Rebecca allows him entry and he walks into the middle of a teleconference with General Beckman.

"… so while I know that the contract doesn't begin till the first of the year, I was hoping you'd help. Um… there's one other thing… the agent you're looking for… it's Zondra."

Sarah freezes and Chuck mutters "Craptastic! Okay Diane… we'll get right on it. The teams will be airborne within the hour. Casey will be contacting you with details and logistical needs."

"Thank you Chuck… Sarah… John. I'll be waiting for contact." With that Beckman signs off.

"Okay John, you heard the tail end of that. Zondra is missing, presumed taken. She was on a multinational task force in Europe working on a human trafficking case. She was partnered with an MI6 agent and a DGSI agent. The MI6 agent disappeared four days ago and the DGSI agent two days ago. Both bodies were found yesterday. Zondra went dark shortly after. Get your teams prepped and airborne as soon as possible. You're heading for Marseille, France. Beckman is going to try to get us an unused military base outside of the city for staging. Hopefully we'll have a target for you by the time you set down."

Rebbeca cut in… "Chuck… Carina, Cole and Vicky are asking for entry."

"Please let them in Rebbeca."

The three hustled into the room, obviously anxious. Carina cocked her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "Care to share?"

"We have a Foxfire alert in Europe."

"And when were you planning on telling us? I know you were NOT thinking of leaving us out of this!"

Smiling, Chuck said "Right now actually. Have a seat. Casey, we'll send you updates after you're in the air." With that Casey took off. "Sarah, can you work with Ellie to get downloads ready for you, Cole, Vicky and Carina, and updates for me, Casey and the tacteams. You've got a half hour, then you all practice your skills for another half hour before we are wheels up."

Sarah bolted out the door, asking Rebecca where Ellie was. Chuck turned back to the assembled agents "Okay… here's what we have so far…"

OO

From the cabin of their executive jet, Chuck convened the briefing. Morgan had gone with Casey to man the Surveillance Van, and he, Casey, and the two tacteam leaders attend by remote from their Cargo planes. Mary, Alex and Tony Jackson, from the DAI team, back in Castle also teleconferenced in.

"Okay everyone, let's get started. You all should have a brief of the plan. Now, because the contract has not officially started, we don't have the official access to satellites we will have… but after some judicious hacking, we found what we needed and tracked some tangos back from where they dumped the bodies to a warehouse on the waterfront. Casey, you should have the address. As soon as you touch down, have your Raptor teams get on site and start recon on the building. We should touch down about ten minutes after you, so please wait with the rest of your team and we can all go to the site together. The target is a building, sitting on the waterfront facing the south. There is a three story office section on the south side west end, and a warehouse in the rear and east side, with the loading dock on the south side east end. There are entrances only on the south side of the building."

"Plan A: Paladin team sets up just to the west of the building as the assault team. Templar team sets up two hundred yards to the east as cover team. Sarah is tiger, I am lion and we are cat1. Cat2 is Cole, jaguar, Vicky, leopard and Carina, cheetah. Cat1 goes in completely clandestine to attach a connection router to their network inside the firewall and to search the rooms to see what we can find in hardcopy intel. Cat2 goes in after the friendly being careful to only allow leopard to be visible. The cover story is that Director Mills of the CIA, felt something was off when he assigned Agent Rizzo, so he asked General Beckman to assign an agent to watch the team… that's Vicky, a known NSA agent. She goes in, with the rest of Cat2 helping from the shadows, rescues Zondra and gets out. Make sure that only leopard is on any video the enemy gets. Once cat2 is out, cat1 extracts and we all skedaddle, the bad guys none the wiser on what the hell happened to their prisoner."

"Plan B: Set up as Plan A, Cat1 goes in clandestine but cat2 goes in hell bent for leather. We'll use this if somehow we're partially blown and we need to get in and out fast. Paladin and Raptor teams may engage but may not enter the building. Once cat2 is out, cat1 extracts and again we disappear."

"Plan C: If we are completely blown, cat1 still goes in quiet but cat2 goes in with Paladin and takes the entire building. Templar moves up and secures the front of the building."

"Casey, make sure you have a raptor team watching that internet connection box on the east side of the building in the alley. If we have to go to plan C, I need that connection to stay up as long as possible so Tony and his crew can have as much time as possible to vacuum up data from their network. This is important… second only to getting Zondra out alive. Questions?"

Fifteen minutes of back and forth fills in all the holes and everyone is ready. Back in Castle, Alex is still getting acquainted with her role as Mary's assistant and reluctantly asks "Mary? Can I ask a question?"

"Of course, dear! Now's the time before we go active."

"Thanks. Who or what are Paladin and Templar?"

"Those are the two tacteams. Also you heard the reference to a raptor team? Those are the scout sniper teams. Eagle, hawk and falcon are attached to Paladin. Owl, harrier and griffon are assigned to Templar. Do you have anything in your download about weapons?"

"Not really."

"We'll fix that on the next download. For now, the only thing you really need to know is about the weapons the sniper teams use. One is a very heavy, .50 caliber rifle that will pretty much punch through the side of any building unless it's armored… heavily armored. The targeting system is very sensitive and allows them to pick up targets behind walls using heat, sonar and radar. The other weapon system is a silenced 7.62 mm semi-auto. Much shorter range and nowhere near the penetrating power of the .50, but it is quiet and has the same targeting system as the heavier weapon."

Two hours later Casey's tacteams land. Even before the tailgate is fully down, three motorcycles roar out of the back of one of the aircraft, each carrying two people… the raptors from Paladin. In ten minutes they are on site and surveilling the building. The rest of the vehicles off load the aircraft and are waiting as the field agents land. Running from their aircraft the agents hustle to their SUV and a second SUV from the base configured as an ambulance. In convoy the vehicles take off. Three motorcycles lead, then the SUV, ambulance, the surveillance van, and six four wheel drive, four door, pickup trucks. Getting close to the waterfront, the convoy splits, with the three motorcycles and three of the pickups, carrying Templar, going to the east and the rest heading toward the target. Ten minutes later and everyone is setup. Casey, Morgan, Chuck and Sarah are in the surveillance van going over the situation.

Casey grunts… his "looks quiet enough to me" grunt.

Chuck grins "Yeah, Casey… I agree. No sense in waiting, lets go."

Chuck exits the van and waves cat2 over. Just as they approach, the radio crackles. "Command… eagle… I have a tango entering the room with our friendly… Shit." What is clearly a muffled gunshot is heard. "Command… eagle. We're blown. Tango was going to shoot the friendly. I took him out… no other activity."

"Crap." Casey looks at Chuck, who nods, as Casey brings up his mic. "Command to all units… implement plan B… implement plan B. Go, go, go."

Jaguar is half way to the front door by this time with the girls right behind him. Lion and Tiger have disappeared. Before Cat2 gets to the door it swings open and two tangoes step out and are immediately put down by Jaguar with a tranq gun. All the cats are carrying both lethal and non-lethal weaponry. Lion had told them they needed prisoners to question but stressed that they were not to put themselves in danger just to take an enemy alive. Cat2 disappears inside the building.

Casey is following the action by radio and hacked surveillance monitors.

"Eagle… see that pair?"

"Got em hawk. I'll take the one in front. Ready, steady, fire… Two down."

"Command… eagle… lots of activity on the third floor."

"Roger that… leave 'em unless they interfere with cat2 on the second floor."

"Leopard… door to the right." Sound of glass breaking and a tranq gun firing multiple times.

"Clear."

"Cat2… hawk… next door on your right."

"Got it. Making entry… Cheetah, get her ready to go." The infrared shows Carina and Vicky getting a clearly unconscious Zondra on her feet then loading her onto Cole's back and securing her with straps into what looks like a saddle. With Carina leading and Vicky trailing, they head back out toward the stairs.

"Cat2… eagle… large group of tangos coming your way… recommend you go down the stairs and out the back, into the warehouse and find someplace to hide."

"Got it."

As soon as cat2 hits the bottom of the stairs Casey loses them on the monitors. He could barely hear footsteps coming from cat2. Then what sounded like a rusty door opening could be heard. Casey figured it was the door of a shipping container… cat2 probably trying to hide.

"Bloody hell… Command… jaguar… multiple captives… looks like they weren't kidding about the human trafficking thing. Leopard check that one."

"Shit… this one's full too."

"Command to all units… plan C… go to plan C… go… go… go. Cat2… hide."

Things went crazy fast. Paladin burst from cover and made entry as six two person teams. Paladin carried only lethal weapons, none of them suppressed, so quickly the sounds of gunfire filled the night air. Templar's vehicles roared up and the tacteam sectech's tumbled out to cover the front of the building as the firing continued inside the building. Raptors fired periodically, usually in single shots, but once a fusillade from multiple weapons, that lasted for almost four seconds. Explosions from inside the building indicated hand grenades going off and telling Casey exactly where his teams were.

"Paladin two… first floor east secured… heading to the warehouse."

"Paladin four… third floor east secured."

"Paladin three… second floor west secured."

"Paladin one… first floor west empty… in warehouse… three… no four containers with captives. Cat2 secured and exiting."

Command, that is Casey, saw jaguar exit the front and head straight to the van, leopard and cheetah right behind. He meets them and they get Zondra on the prepared stretcher. Casey and Carina looked her over to make sure she could be transported safely.

"Cole, take Carina and go. Vicky… on me." The plan was to get Zondra on a plane and to Rota Navy base in Spain as fast as possible. Not necessarily the closest hospital, but definitely the closest secure hospital in the area. Carina flashed medical and sat in the back with Zondra as Cole drove.

As they pulled away, Cole asks "Carina, why'd the plan call for you to go with me?"

"She needs to see someone she knows when she regains consciousness, otherwise she will consider herself still in captivity and act accordingly."

At the warehouse, combat was winding down.

"Command to all units… withdraw. Cat1… status."

"Cat1… Router is in place… we are withdrawing. Prisoners?"

"Affirmative. We're loading them now."

Casey barely has time to exit the van when sirens can be heard and suddenly, Chuck and Sarah are standing next to him.

"Command… Templar… all present… exiting the area."

"Command… Paladin… all present… exiting the area."

Casey looked around, as did Chuck, who nodded. Casey and Vicky climb into the SUV with the tranqed prisoners, while Chuck and Sarah climb into the comm van with Morgan and they were off. Fifteen minutes later, everyone is back at their temporary base, cleaning weapons, getting food and basically winding down. Chuck, Sarah and Casey are in conference; with Beckman in DC, and the DAI group in Castle. Tony is presenting their preliminary findings.

"Personally I think this entire operation is screwed, but I'm a pessimist. We're still pulling data off their network, but so far we're finding payoffs to so many politicians there is no way anyone can mount any kind of operation without this syndicate finding out. So far we got indications of dirty politicians in Spain, France, Italy and Greece. The only good part is that so far, it's all politicians… the intelligence agency's look clean. Unfortunately, so far we've not found any actual names… just code names."

Chuck looked at Beckman without saying a word. "Yes Chuck, I know… but I'm going to have to kick this upstairs before we start a major international incident. I'll let Rota know you're coming and to set aside a hanger for you. Please stay in Europe for at least the night then we can decide what to do tomorrow."

"Okay General… but remember you're on the clock here. This is going to cost you."

"Very funny… very funny. Go on… load up and get to Rota… let me know how Zondra is."

Carina sat in a very uncomfortable chair next to Zondra's bed. She had already contacted Sarah with the doctors report that Zondra's injuries were non-life threatening and all would heal with time. Psychological evaluation would have to wait till she woke up. Carina dozed on and off, till around 10:00pm. Something alerted her and she sat up looking at Zondra.

"Okay… stow the act, Zondra… I know you're awake."

"Carina? Where are we… how did you get here… what's going on?" Zondra was strapped to the bed at the wrists and ankles, and she subtly tested each restraint.

"Zondra… we're in Rota, Spain… at the US Navy base, in the hospital. We are secure and I have a fireteam of Marines on guard." Carina waited patiently as Zondra looked around calmly, waking up and taking in her surroundings.

"Well… I guess it's better than where I was… but I'd rather be in Boston."

Carina moved to the side of the bed and began opening the restraints. "Yeah, you're right. What I wouldn't give for a piece of authentic Boston Cream Pie."

Sign and counter sign given and received, Zonrda sobbed and wrapped Carina in a ferocious hug. "Oh God Carina… I figured I was dead… my whole team…". Zondra hugged Carina tightly and began to cry silently. Carina just held her friend till she began to wind down.

Snifling, Zondra pulled away from the embrace. "Um… how am I? I hurt everywhere but how bad is it?"

"Don't worry about it girl… no damage that won't heal. Par for the course… everything is very painful but superficial. Worse damage was a dislocated left shoulder. How are you feeling… you know what I mean?"

"Yeah I know what you mean. I won't lie… that one scared me. But I lived through it. You know what they say… what doesn't kill you…"

"…makes you stronger. Yeah… bullshit. How are YOU?"

"Ask me tomorrow. So what happened… how did you get me out? Are you alone?"

"God no… Sarah, Chuck, Casey and a whole slew of warriors swooped in and devastated the place they were holding you. The only survivors were the four we took for interrogation."

Zondra became alarmed. "Carina there were a couple of hundred prisoners in the shipping containers… you didn't…?"

"No… of course not. With Chuck around? Come on. No, last we heard the French police have them all. Now what can you tell me…"

When the Carmichael Enterprises aircraft landed, Carina and Cole were waiting along with the NCIS head of station, Special Agent Ted Waters. The only face visible coming off the aircraft, was Vicky's. Everyone else had their helmets on with a voice distorter going. Carina made the introductions.

"Lion, this is Special Agent Ted Waters, NCIS head of station… he'll be our liaison."

"Nice to meet you Agent Waters. Sorry about the helmets but we are a VERY clandestine group."

"I fully understand Lion… please call me Ted. I've already briefed the ground crew… you were never here. We'll get your aircraft serviced, refueled and ready to go as soon as possible. You'll find cots inside and a mobile kitchen unit out back. I've already given cheetah the codes and keys for the building and the secure conference room. If you need anything, she has my numbers."

"Ted, much appreciated. Command… get everyone settled. Command, Vanman, and Cats… conference at 0800 hrs… till then get some sleep."

Next morning, after a very welcome hot breakfast, the group met in the secure conference room of the hanger they were using. General Beckman was on one screen with Castle on another. Mary, Alex, Tony and Ellie were all in Castle.

Beckman started the meeting. "Thank you OI… you not only saved Zondra but you pulled quite a bit of intel from their network before it shut down… to say nothing of saving close to four hundred individuals destined for slavery. Good job. Between the prisoners, the data analysis and Zondra's debrief to Carina, here's what we have. This syndicate has hooks into over seventy five politicians in at least five countries; Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Austria. The pol's run from city councilmen to government ministers and everything in between. They have every level of government in the areas they are working covered. The bad news is we have no actual names only code names. The good news is we know where we can get the intel we need. Zondra and her team managed to uncover one of leaders of this syndicate. He is an American living in France, goes by the name Luc St. Jacques. He has a villa around 50 kilometers south of Paris that sits on 100 acres of land with a formidable defense force constantly patrolling the grounds. Given the amount of electrical power the place is using, both from the grid and internally generated, we believe their server farm must be on site. Also, e-mails indicate that the local members of the syndicate don't know who the bought pol's are. All contact between the syndicate and it's politicians is funneled through St. Jacques. He must have the real names."

"Therefore, we will need to penetrate his estate and get one of your connection routers attached to their network. This is not going to be easy. Short of a full scale assault, we don't see a way to get in. Chuck, I'd like you and your team to look at this problem and see if you see something we've missed. POTUS has banned us from any overt action till we have certifiable proof of St. Jacques involvement. We could hit the local operations but without the list of politicians and proof of their involvement, the syndicate would just rebuild after any raid. Let me know if you come up with anything."

With that Beckman's screen went blank.

Chuck just shook his head. "She still doesn't know how to say goodby. Mom, Tony… send us everything you've got on this St. Jacques and his estate. We'll concentrate on that while you and your team continue to comb the data for intel. Ellie, please get all this stuff encoded for an update load. Okay let's get to work."

For the next four hours, the OIteam and agents in Spain went over everything they had, trying to figure a way into the villa to plant the router. They had to get in quiet, plant the router where it wouldn't be discovered, then hang around long enough to do a hard search of St. Jacques office, in case the intel was not on the network. There was a real possibility it was on a thumb drive or laptop, kept off the network as a security precaution. Once they had the intel, they needed to get out… all without tripping any alarms. The team in Castle continued to feed intel gotten from the purloined data. Nothing helped… they just couldn't see a way in. Six of the best agents and analysts in the business and they were stumped.

Chuck finally vocalized what they were all thinking. "Okay… there is no way we are penetrating their defense without being discovered."

Sarah looked around, seeing nothing but uncomfortable confirmation. They collectively were stymied. With her own uncomfortable look she cleared her throat. "Um… Chuck and I know one way we could get in."

Chuck looked confused. He looked at Sarah then the light bulb came on. "NO… no… no… Sarah we are not doing that. It's way too dangerous."

Casey looked from Sarah to Chuck and back. "What's too dangerous. What the hell are you two morons talking about?"

Chuck just stared at Sarah. "Are you sure?"

"Do we have a choice? This group needs to be stopped. It's why we set this up in the first place."

"Fine… but I'm not happy using this." Chuck pressed a few keys on his laptop keyboard and Castle came up on the screen, showing Mary and Alex. "Mom… grab a jet and get here ASAP, please. Once you're in the air call and I'll brief you. You'll need to make some calls and set up some stuff. Alex, please hold down the fort till Morgan gets there. Morgan… grab the executive Jet and get back to Chicago ASAP."

Everyone except Sarah looked confused and bewildered. "Okay people, we are not going in clandestinely… we are going to be invited in. Let me tell you a story about Alexi Volkoff… Junior."


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Again, thanks to everyone taking this trip with me. One more chapter after this and no epilogue. I already have two more stories in the ATL universe started, so hopefully this will be a continuing saga. If anyone has an idea or scenario for this universe, please let me know. Oh yes... I almost forgot... Sarah under the drugs will be a third story.

Chapter 12

 _ **Spain.**_

"Okay… let me get this straight" Casey's voice was as close to being emotional as was possible… for Casey. "… you are Alexei Volkoff Jr?"

"Yes… at least that is what everyone at what's left of Volkoff Enterprises thinks, anyway. On the way back from our Honeymoon, Sarah and I took a quick stop in Russia and set it up. We became Alexei Jr and Sasah Volkoff. The legend is I'm Frost's son by Alexei, and Sasah is an ex-CIA agent, Sarah Walker. Everyone in VE knows that Frost was Alexei's 'companion' for like twenty something years, and they also know that the famous Sarah Walker joined VE to buy a future with the love of her life. The story goes, Sarah became Frost's protégé and partner, the Frost Queen and the Ice Queen, then Sarah's lover back in the states was killed by the CIA, so she turned to Alexei Jr for comfort, becoming his bodyguard and eventually his wife. I call and skype the senior management team of VE every now and then, making sure they stay on the straight and narrow."

"Alexei Jr travels a lot more than Sr. did and he travels with a LOT of security. He's going to be conducting some business in Paris and will need somewhere near the city to stay. Luc St. Jacques will be the lucky bastard who gets to host the son of the infamous Alexei Volkoff. Casey, I'll need four of your people who speak Russian fluently and can at least understand French, to act as my close security team. Another eight or ten will be the rest of my security personnel, a response team and wide security… if necessary Ellie can do a quick update with Russian for us all. Everyone else will be with you as the assault team and backup. Have four or five raptor teams on overwatch in case we get blown and have to make a mad dash out. Carina and Vicky will come in as assistants and Cole will be my chief of staff. "

The team scattered to get things set up, and Chuck and Sarah to get on the phone with Mary.

It took three days but finally they were ready. Casey took his team, everyone not going with Chuck and Sarah, and set up in France, doing recon on St. Jacques's villa. Chuck and Sarah along with their team flew to Estonia, then crossed the border into Russia via a smugglers route. Alexei and Sasah, along with their security team, arrived at the Volkoff Enterprises compound, the Citadel, the next day. Frost had already flow in two days prior and was getting everything ready. The VE management team was in turns surprised, welcoming, concerned and finally terrified. Alexei Jr. had his people auditing all the company activities since the last time he was there. Discrepancies were found, of course. Small ones were dismissed… Alexei expected some skimming and accepted it. However big inconsistencies had to be dealt with. Four of the senior management team disappeared. Everyone at Volkoff Enterprises assumed they were dead and buried. In fact, they were spirted away and turned over to the CIA. The information extracted from them would be invaluable. Not only information concerning VE, but information on all the clients VE has had dealings with. After that the four would end up in VERY secure prisons the CIA maintained outside the USA. Chuck and Sarah were very careful with their extraction. The four left the VE compound together and were 'intercepted' by a CIA team. All the Volkoff security personnel were 'killed' in front of the four so as far as they knew, Alexie and Sasah had nothing to do with the CIA getting their hands on the four of them.

For three days, Volkoff Enterprises was in an uproar… then suddenly it was over. The four disappeared, and three people were promoted to the senior management team, two of whom were CIA agents that Chuck and Sarah had previously embedded in Volkoff Enterprises. The other was Alexei and Sasah's 'close' friend, who just happened to be DGSE agent Ilsa Trinchina. Management meetings suddenly became much calmer, more productive, concentrating on business rather than 'monkey business'. Portions of VE were closed… purportedly for being unproductive or unprofitable, but usually for being too evil. New production facilities and distribution centers were approved; legitimate ones, explained away as cover for VE in new parts of the world.

Two days later, Alexei decided to take a trip to Paris. He had his people in Russia set it up, asking them for a list of individuals he could stay with in France. When Alexei asked for the list of people to stay with in France, he was very specific with the criteria, virtually guaranteeing that St. Jacques would be on the list. Sure enough, not only was he on the list, he was the top recommendation, based on security and the fact that he had never had anything to do with Volkoff Enterprises and therefore, no one would expect Alexei to stay with him.

Alexei Jr and Sasah Volkoff, along with their security team, arrived in France aboard a private aircraft at an airfield not 5 km from St. Jacques's villa. Five limousines supplied by St. Jacques waited for them, complete with two drivers/bodyguards per vehicle… who were immediately replaced by Volkoff personnel. The VE security teams checked the cars thoroughly for explosives or bugs. St. Jacques's representative, Louie Dumont, tried to hide the fact that he was disturbed by this. Alexie's chief of staff, Nigel Winterly, noted this and explained.

"Mr. Dumont… no one drives Mr. Volkoff, except one of his chosen people. His security team is highly trained and extremely loyal."

Dumont looked at said security team and shuddered. The team was obviously divided into two groups, the close security team and the reaction team. The four members of the security team were all dressed identically in what looked like very expensive black suits, sunglasses and headsets, with earphone and mic, apparently wired into the sunglasses for some reason. From the time they had deplaned, Dumont had not seen or heard any of them utter so much as a word. They constantly scanned the area, watching, waiting, looking for anything out of the ordinary, surrounding Alexei and Sasah with a human shield. When he had accidentally bumped into one of them, it felt like hitting the side of a car. They were wearing body armor under their suits... and not just vests… full body armor. The eight member reaction team was even scarier looking. All wore the same outfit; black BDU's with heavy body armor, assault rifles, hand grenades and sidearms. Two carried grenade launchers and one had a light machine gun with an ammo tank on his back. Each also wore a helmet completely obscuring their face. The helmets had no face piece or visor, just solid helmet… how they saw was a mystery… a very scary looking mystery.

"I understand sir… there is no problem. Please have your driver's follow my car and we can proceed to Mr. St. Jacque's villa."

The motorcade departed the airstrip for the short ride to the villa. The gates were already open when they arrived and the cars pulled up to the front entrance. The response team exited the cars first and scanned the area. Apparently satisfied, the security team exited, stood by and Mr. Volkoff exited, reaching back in to offer a hand out to Sasah. Alexie and Sasah were dressed almost identically; a black Armani suit, maroon shirt and black tie. The only difference was Alexie's Italian loafers and Sasah's Gucci pumps, with 4" stiletto heels. St. Jacques was nervously waiting at the door.

"Mr. Volkoff, sir… it is a pleasure to meet you sir. Welcome to my villa."

"Thank you Luc… may I call you Luc… thank you. Allow me to introduce my wife, Sasah, my chief of staff Nigel Winterly, and his assistants, Clair and Veronica."

Fawning, Luc ushered the group into the house. "A pleasure. Sir… a wing with six bedrooms, as requested, has been readied for you and your people. Would you care for refreshments before retiring to your rooms?"

Moving into a sitting room, Luc and two of his people made drinks for Alexei, Sasah, Nigel, Clair and Veronica. The security team stepped through the door and positioned themselves on either side, two and two, then spread out to get better angles on everyone. Drinks distributed, Luc raised his glass. "To Mr. Volkoff… may your visit be successful and enjoyable. Salute."

Taking a sip, Luc made small talk with Alexie and Sasah, as his aides and Alexie's stood back respectfully, waiting on their masters wishes. Shortly, the door to the room opened and a beautiful brunette woman stepped into the room.

"Ah… Jaclyn… come meet Mr. Volkoff and his delightful wife. Mr. and Mrs. Volkoff, this is my chief assistant and fiancée Jaclyn."

The woman visibly reacted when she looked at Sasah. Quickly schooling her features, she stepped forward, approaching the group. Coming close to Sasah, she suddenly burst into movement, grabbing Sasah by the wrist and attempting to throw her to the floor. Sasah's counter was faster than could be followed, but ended up with Jaclyn lying on the floor, arm twisted into an obviously painful position, and Sasah's stiletto heel hovering over the brunette's carotid artery. A jab of the heel and Jaclyn would bleed out before anyone could even move.

In Russian, Sasah addressed Alexie. _"May I kill her… please Alexie… it's been so long."_

In Russian, Alexie replied. _"Wait a moment my dear… I'm sure there is an explanation. If it is not to my liking I will probably allow you to kill her. On the other hand, perhaps we should take her with us… you know… for entertainment before you kill her."_

Alexie looked at an obviously panicked St. Jacque. "Would you care to explain? Or at least try too?"

Barely able to speak, St Jacque stammered and stuttered till finally he got himself under control. "JACLYN… WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

"Luc, please… this woman is a CIA agent… her name is Sarah Walker... I am sure of it."

St. Jacque looked at Alexie, dumbfounded. Alexie laughed "See my dear… I knew there would be an explanation. Please release her." Sasah let the woman's arm go and stepped back. At a nod from Alexie, two members of Alexie's security team, who had stepped forward at the first sign of trouble, hoisted her from the floor and held her.

Alexie looked at St. Jacque, the man obviously confused and becoming extremely agitated. "Tsk… tsk… tsk… it looks like you will be losing your fiancée Luc… she will be coming with us."

"I… I don't understand… is this woman Sarah Walker? If she is a CIA agent I cannot allow her to leave here alive."

Alexie took two steps and loomed over St. Jacque. "YOU CANNOT ALLOW?" Weapons suddenly appeared in the hands of all four of the Volkoff security team, aimed at various people. Two of the security team held a pair of FN FiveSeveN pistols and the other two had FN P90 Personal Defense Weapons. Both these weapons fired the 5.7x28mm ammunition, specifically designed to penetrate soft body armor.

Gulping, St. Jacque tried to look steadfast, but his voice squeaked just a touch as he responded. "Please Mr. Volkoff."

Stepping back, Alexie laughed again. "Your fiancée is correct Luc. My Sasah was at one time Sarah Walker of the CIA. She is now Sasah Volkoff, my wife. Would you like to question me on anything ELSE?"

Looking around franticly, Luc spoke tentatively. "Um… sir… if she is correct, why am I losing her… sir… Mr. Volkoff… sir?"

"We are taking her with us because she attacked my wife… also, she had the impudence to assume that I would be STUPID enough as to allow my staff to be infiltrated by the CIA. For that arrogance… she must die… and she will… slowly… painfully… for my wife's entertainment. Now please show me to our rooms… I am weary of all this and would like to rest."

With Jaclyn's hands cuffed behind her back, the entire group is escorted to the guest wing of the villa. At the first bedroom, two of the security team peeled off, with Jaclyn, and set up shop. The other two security people, along with Nigel, Clair and Veronica, checked each of the rooms thoroughly for both physical dangers and electronic devices. Getting the all clear, Alexie and Sasah stepped into the middle bedroom and closed the door. Sarah immediately wrapped Chuck in her arms as he began to shake.

"Wow… that was intense. I… I… I can't believe I did that. You were great with the 'may I kill her' in Russian. Do you really think he'll let us take her with us?" Chuck was incredibly wired and starting to spiral.

"Chuck… it's okay… calm down. You were brilliant honey… not only are we in safely… we have a shot at taking his chief of staff with us. But you're right. He might not let us take her. When he gets his nerve back, he might insist we release her. Tell you what… at dinner tonight, mention that we've taken a liking to Jaclyn… no… tell him the I'VE taken a liking to her, wink wink nudge nudge… and you've decided not to kill her. We will be taking her with us as entertainment, but we'll send her back in a week or two… or maybe a month. Not only will we send her back… we'll send her back with no major damage. That will probably convince him to let the whole thing ride. Now, do what we came for, then lay down and try to relax. I'm going to go down and interact with Jaclyn… to both scare the crap out of her and convince her that I'm taking a liking to her. She can go with us to dinner to convince St. Jacque that she will be okay."

Sarah left and Chuck went to his bags, pulled out a small grey box and two RJ45 cables. Looking around he found the network connection and plugged in the box. A green light came on, then a yellow light began to flash irregularly. Chuck pulled his laptop out and plugged the laptop into the grey box. A couple of keystrokes and Tony appeared on his screen.

"Hi boss… we made connection and have a good signal. We just started the download. How are things at your end?"

"Terrifying but good. Let Casey know we are in and in good shape. I'll talk to him tomorrow as scheduled. Signing off."

"Roger boss… signing off."

Chuck, still rattled, laid down on the bed and tried to relax. A half hour later, Sarah returned to find a somewhat calmer but still agitated Chuck lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. She climbed up on the bed and snuggled up against him. "How are you doing honey?"

"Um… not bad but still kind of wound up. Better now with you here. How is Jaclyn? She still alive?"

"Oh yes… I think she wet herself, but she's alive. Oddly, she has a completely different reaction than you do to my knife holster."

Chuck rolled his eyes. "I can imagine."

"Anyway, she's now convinced that I kind of like her and that, if she behaves herself, she has a real shot at living through this whole thing. We'll take her to dinner with us and let her convince St. Jacque." Sarah stood, took her jacket off and began unbuttoning her blouse.

Chuck stammered. "Um… what are you doing?"

"Well we need you nice and calm at dinner… so I'm just going to help you relax… okay?"

"Wha… what? Oh… OH… absolutely… you're the professional… whatever you say… calm and relaxed… yes ma'am…" Sarah stopped his babbling with a kiss.

...

Alexie and Sasah walked into the dining room chatting back and forth, laughing... cool, calm and collected. Luc had a drink in his hand and was obviously trying to maintain his calm.

"May I offer you a cocktail before dinner Mr. Volkoff?"

"Certainly… a Vodka martini for myself and white wine for my wife."

Just as a servant brought the requested beverages, the door opened and Jaclyn enters. She has obviously had a chance to clean up and change for dinner. Luc's eye's brighten for a second before he can school his features again.

Sasah glances at the brunette. "Ah Jaclyn… join us. Have a drink, it will calm your nerves." Addressing Luc, Sasah continues. "Jaclyn and I had a nice little conversation this afternoon. I do believe we are going to get along famously… don't you Jaclyn?"

"Yes Mrs. Volkoff… absolutely famously ma'am."

"Now Jaclyn… how many times do I have to tell you to call me Sasah?" Sasah moves to Jaclyn, hand caressing her face.

"At least one more time Mrs. Volkoff." The women begin to chat softly.

Alexie turns to Luc, leans in and speaks quietly. "Well, it looks like our ladies are getting along quite well. Just between you and I, I don't believe Sasah will do anything drastic to your fiancée. She's taken quite a liking to Jaclyn. I believe she'll be with us for a while, but eventually… a couple of weeks or a month… she'll come back to you, none the worse for wear."

Luc visibly relaxes. "Thank you Mr. Volkoff… I certainly appreciate that. If there's anything I can do for you…"

A thought suddenly strikes Chuck. "As a matter of fact… I understand you have quite the operation smuggling 'items' from Africa and the middle east into Europe. Any thoughts about doing it in reverse? I have a number of instances where I could use another trusted operation to get things into those areas."

The look on Luc's face could only be described as ecstatic. Working with Volkoff Enterprises would propel him into the big leagues. "It would be an honor sir… please… anytime."

"Excellent. Sasah and I will discuss it with Jaclyn during her time visiting us, and she can fill you in when she comes back to you." The look in Luc's eyes told Alexie that nothing would stand in the way of Jaclyn accompanying them on their departure.

"Dinner is served."

...

The next morning, Alexie, Sasah and Nigel, along with two of the security team and four of the response team, left for a meeting. First stop was a spot about a kilometer from the villa where a couple of Casey's assault team scanned the limos for bugs or trackers. Finding it clean they preceded to the decommissioned military airstrip Casey and his team were using. Chuck, Sarah and Cole exited the vehicles, which took off to do circuits of the airstrip to put the required mileage on the odometer.

"Hey Casey… what's the situation?"

"Well, Tony tells me that they've pretty much got everything available from St. Jacque's network and have started decrypting it. He's pretty disgusted with the encryption they are using… says it's a joke and he is highly offended by the nonprofessional level of it. He promises we'll have everything decrypted by tonight. General Beckman has already got a partial list of the dirty politicians and is starting to organize the take down. It's going to take some time to set up… this is a political situation. POTUS is involved but the evidence is overwhelming so…"

"Excellent… we'll be bringing St. Jacque's chief of staff out with us, so whatever isn't on the network she should be able to fill in."

Chuck got a pensive look on his face. "Casey… please set up a conference call with Castle and Washington… I would like to talk to Ellie and Gen. Beckman."

"There's like a seven hour time difference with Chicago and I think Ellie is getting some sleep."

"No rush… make it for three this afternoon. That should make it eight in the morning in Chicago and nine in DC. Here's what I have in mind…"

"So Ellie, you're sure you can suppress memories and implant new ones? And can you do it remotely?"

"Well, we know from what happened to Morgan and Sarah that the intersect is capable of suppressing memories… as for implanting new ones, they will be kind of like dreams. You're saying the whole thing should only take a couple of hours and the memories will actually be the same as she already has, sitting in an aircraft flying to Russia… so yes I'm sure. As far as remotely is concerned, your aircraft has the required display units for an upload… so again yes, I'm sure."

"Excellent… so what we'll do is dose her with babble juice on the plane, get all the info we need, then make her forget the whole thing, believing that it was just a routine flight from France to Russia. We'll spend a couple of days at the Citadel, then an emergency shall arise that Alexie will have to take care of personally. Of course, Sasah will have to accompany him, so Jaclyn will be sent back to France. When this thing is all over, we might even be able to use her as an agent… for Alexie and Sasah. That could be interesting... getting us eyes and ears on all kinds of nefarious stuff."

One of Casey's assistants quietly entered and whispered in Casey's ear.

"Damn… we have an issue back at St. Jacques villa. One of Volkoff's ex-lieutenants, Sergie Evonovich has arrived and is raising hell, insisting Volkoff is dead, that there is no Alexie Jr and that the whole thing is a scam. Clair thinks that it's only a matter of time before he starts insisting on questioning them and releasing Jaclyn. She has already pulled in the rest of the response team for backup and is planning on confronting the bastard first."

"All right… let's wrap up here and get back. I'm pretty sure Clair can handle this guy but I don't want to leave her hanging." A pensive look on his face, Chuck looks from Sarah to Mary and back. Sarah has her agent mask up, as does Mary. When Chuck looks at Mary again, she nods quickly. "Frost will be returning with us. Sasah… let Frost handle the wet work." Chuck has made the heart wrenching decision to protect Sarah's soul at the expense of another death on his mother's conscience.

"Chuck I…" Sarah begins.

Mary quickly stops her. "Sarah… let me do this for you. You don't need more… well just let me do it. If it needs to be done… let me." Quietly, Sarah nods in agreement.

Fifteen minutes later, Alexie and Sasah's limo pulls up to the villa. As they pull up the drive and get within range of the earwigs, Alexie asks for a sitrep. Veronica responds.

"Hi Alexie… welcome to the fun. Clair and I confronted this Evonovich character five minutes ago. Both of his bodyguards are down… they tried to draw on us… and I think Sergie wet himself. He keeps screaming at Luc to take us, but Luc is dithering. Did you really put a million euro price on this guy's head?"

"Yup… back when the whole thing blew up, he took off with a dozen of Volkoff senior's security people and 50 million euro's of Volkoff money. As far as Volkoff Enterprises is concerned, he's a traitor. Just keep him talking… we'll be with you in a minute."

Sergie yells again at Luc. "THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL IMPOSTERS… VOLKOFF HAD NO CHILDREN… HE AND FROST ARE BOTH DEAD. KILL THEM ALL… NOW!"

The doors slam open and Alexie, Sasah and their two security men stride in.

Sergie looks over and screams again. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? WHAT IS THAT BITCH CIA AGENT WALKER DOING HERE? LUC… GROW A PAIR AND KILL THEM ALL."

Suddenly Sergie's face loses all color and his jaw drops as Frost strides through the door. "It can't be… you're dead… Alexie was taken and you were killed. Everyone knows that."

A gun suddenly appears in Frost's hand and it's pointing directly at Evonovich's forehead. She stop's ten feet from Evonovich and quietly says "Why is this traitor still alive?"

"Mother please… I will handle this! Luc? Have you had dealings with this traitor?"

"Traitor? Dealings? Um… yes Mr. Volkoff… sir… he is one of my partners, he put up most of the money for our current enterprise. Sir… may I ask what the issue is?"

"He betrayed my father and stole from us. How much money has he invested with you?"

"Um… almost forty million euro's… but he has already made twice that back."

"That was Volkoff money so you may now consider me your partner in place of this traitor. Evonovich you bastard… you have exactly twenty seconds to tell me where my money is."

The Russian traitor looks as Alexie… then at Frost. His shoulders slump. "My laptop is in my room… it can access all my accounts. The password is 'se1276!es'."

Turning to Frost, Alexie smiles. "See mother… it's as easy as that." Turning he motions to his security people. "Cuff him… we'll take him with us. Luc… there is a million euro bounty on his head. As we caught him in your villa, I think you deserve the reward. When Jaclyn comes back to you I'll send it with her. Um… Jaclyn? There's an idea. Luc… do you know what a 'red test' is? Maybe we'll use Sergie here as Jaclyn's red test. Ah well… Luc, I must take my leave from you. We completed our business early and I long to return to mother Russia and my Citadel. You have been a most gracious host and I thank you for your hospitality. We will be doing business in the future. Goodby. Das vedanya!"

This time when they get back to the bedroom Chuck all but faints, plopping down to sit on the bed. Mary has a look on her face that says she's half relieved she didn't have to kill the bastard Evonovich and half disappointed. Sarah is sitting on the bed, arms wrapped around Chuck, cradling him and cooing in his ear. He calms quickly.

With a still shaky voice Chuck finally speaks. "Okay… we pulled it off and nobody died. Let's pack up and get out of here."

A/N: Chance to get your nerd point back. Anyone get the reference? I'll give you a hint... it's referencing a line in Pirates of the Caribbean.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

 _ **In the air, flying from France to Russia**_

With Alexie, Sasah, Frost, the 4 members of the security team, Nigel, Clair, Veronica, Jaclyn and Sergie, the aircraft was full, but not crowded. It was a pretty good size aircraft. On boarding the plane, Alexie and Sasah had entered the private room at the tail, leaving the main cabin for the rest. Jaclyn and Sergie sat facing each other, with Frost sitting next to Jaclyn.

"Sergie… you were one of Alexie's favorites… he was so disappointed in you. I'm afraid your death is going to be slow and extremely painful if we tell him we have you. Of course, it's not going to be much faster if my son gives you to my protégée. Have you ever seen her use a knife? It actually is very impressive. Sasah is… well… an artist with a blade."

Face pale, eyes terror filled, Evonovich looks are the woman across from him "Frost… please… you can just kill me now. Tell Alexie I attacked you and you were forced to kill me."

"Now why would I do that? It would spoil everyone's fun. However… I'll tell you what… tell me about everyone you have had any dealings with since you left… every deal… every purchase… every sale… every investment… and then maybe… just maybe… I'll give you a quick death."

"Thank you Frost… well the first thing after leaving, I went…" Sergie began his ramble. Frost didn't bother to listen. Everything in the cabin was being recorded, audio and video, from multiple angles. Jaclyn leaned over and quietly spoke.

"Ma'am… may I ask a question?"

"Certainly… I may not answer, but you may ask."

"Why do you want all this information?"

"Oh my dear… one can never have too much information about potential clients, or rivals. Plus, Alexie, Junior that is, will probably follow up on some of these events to expand our own dealings."

Back in the private cabin, Chuck and Sarah had watched the whole thing.

"Interpol is going to have a field day. Between Sergie and Jaclyn, they're going to have info on pretty much every major player on the continent… and some in Africa."

"Uummm… the only question now is do we give this to Beckman and let her make deals with Interpol or sell it to them ourselves. This is going to end up being quite a coup and we can make some real friends if we go directly to Interpol or MI6. I know… if we do that then that's just that many more people who know about Orion Industries."

"That's right. I mean we would do it as Carmichael Enterprises but still… my vote is give it to Beckman and let her disseminate it to whoever needs it. She'll get all the kudo's but she'll also owe us big time."

"Yeah… you're right… Beckman it is."

For the next several hours Sergie gave up everyone he had ever had any kind of dealings with. With details… lots and lots of details. He knew where ALL the bodies were buried and told it all. Finally he ran dry, finishing off with St. Jacques and his group of miscreants. Satisfied they had everything, Frost calmly pulled out a gun and shot him, scaring the hell out of Jaclyn, till she realized it was a tranq gun.

Frost looked at Jaclyn… the terror on her face… the question in her eyes. "I just didn't feel like hearing him whine for the rest of the trip. When we get home, we'll just put him on ice. Till then just relax, take a nap or read a magazine."

For the next thirty minutes Jaclyn sat, thumbing through a magazine or staring out the window, obviously still agitated from Frost shooting Sergie. Finally Frost come from the rear and gave her a cup. "Drink this." It was a testament to the level of Jaclyn's fear of Frost that she never questioned what it was or why she should drink it… she just slugged it down. Frost took the cup, went back to the refreshment station and waited. Soon, Jaclyn began shaking her head, rolling it from side to side. Frost came down the aisle.

"Are you all right my dear?"

"Yes ma'am… just… my head feels… I don't know… I just feel odd."

"Just sit and relax my dear." Frost sat across the aisle from Jaclyn. "We haven't had a chance to get to know each other. Tell me about yourself. Tell me everything about who you have worked with, and what you've done since you have gotten involved with St. Jacques and his people."

Jaclyn began to speak and for the next two hours kept up a running dissertation on St. Jacques entire syndicate… how it was organized… who did what… which Politician's they bought and why… everything. She finished up about twenty minutes before they were going to land.

Frost put on the special sunglasses, then looked to the back of the plane and spoke loudly. "Eye protection everyone." Turning to Jaclyn, she maneuvered the young woman to face one of the display screens. "Start it!" The screen lit up and Jaclyn went rigid for several minutes, till it finished, then she passed out. Frost let her sleep for ten minutes or so, then shook her.

"Jaclyn… wake up… we are landing."

"Oh… I must have fallen asleep."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"What? Um… Sergie finished, you tranq'd him and then you told me to relax. I guess I must have. My apologies ma'am."

Two weeks later, late in the afternoon, Chuck, Sarah and Casey sat in Sarah's office facing a monitor with Gen. Beckman on it. "I've only watched a little of the video but oh my God… we'll be mining these video's for months getting intel. The Europeans are going to go nuts. You sure you don't want the credit? At least some of it?"

"Diane, we'd prefer if you just tell everyone that it was one of your MAR teams that did it, led by Cole, Carina and Vicky. You know we did it... your bosses know we did it… POTUS knows we did it, well he knows one of your teams did it anyway… that's probably too many people already."

Diane looked at them fondly, like they were her children whom she was immensely proud of and just said "Thank you… all of you. This is going to save a lot of lives. So what happened to Sergie?"

"Well, currently he is in a cell at the Citadel. In a couple of months, he'll be taken out and told he is being transferred to a gulag in Siberia to spend the rest of his life at hard labor. During transport, he can be 'rescued' by a CIA tactical team and wisked away to Guantanamo, if you guys want him… if not, we'll just let him go to the gulag and be done with him."

Beckman grinned. "I'll check around and see if anyone wants him. I'm thinking we might want to get more detail about some of his dealings, plus what he did for Alexie and before. Now that I think about it, we probably should take him. Are you going to spring Jaclyn?"

"You have her… not us. Well the European's have her. Has she said anything since she, St. Jacques and the rest were taken into custody?"

"Nope… not a word. None of them have talked and no one has pressed particularly hard to get them to. We have everything we need already. I think, they believe their pet politicians will get them out of it eventually."

"When will those arrests happen?"

"Being political in nature it has taken some time but they tell me it will be this Friday, first thing in the morning. Should be quite a day. Interpol is organizing it and needs to get them all at the same time so nobody gets wind of what's going on and bolts. Some of the smaller fish will get picked up by the local authorities, but the big fish, at the national level, will be dealt with by Interpol agents."

"Oh… before we sign off… do any of you know how Zondra is, or even where she is? I tried to find out how she was but the CIA clinic in DC said she checked herself out and wouldn't tell me anything else. I mean I know she's CIA and I'm NSA but I was involved in her rescue… a little professional curtesy would be nice."

Casey grunted his amused grunt, Sarah smiled and Chuck laughed outright. "Oh come on Diane… you know how the CIA is... never tell the right hand what the left hand is doing. But to answer your question, she's fine and she's here with us. She needs another week or so of physical therapy then we're sending her on vacation for a week. I think Carina and Vicky are going with her. They'll be back in time to be in the first agent training class for the MAR program along with Cole. Carina and Vicky will be on the Arizona team, eventually, but will start out with Zondra on the DC Team, along with Clark and Vegas, and Cole is on the London team. As a matter of fact, Cole will be heading up the London team."

"Have you finalized the roster for that class yet? Oh… and what about the tactical teams?"

"Being that this is the first group… both classes are going to be big, we're doing London and Washington together. The Tacteams group is the size of an infantry platoon. Casey kicks that off in a couple of weeks and the training will take two weeks. The agents class starts during the second week and lasts a week. Then we plan on matching the Agents with their tacteams and spending another week with Foxfire running them through simulations. If all goes as expected, we'll activate the teams and send them to their respective HQ's. London will be Palace, DC will be Stronghold and Arizona will be Casa. We plan on running operations for five or six months to get a feel for what worked and what didn't, then start the next training group for the Arizona and California teams."

"Decided on a name for the California HQ?"

"Well, we were going to call it Castle… but we are already calling Chicago Castle, so I think we'll call it Fortress or Bastion, something like that. Oh… how about Repo-depot… I like that."

After a little more small talk, Beckman signed off. She had finally learned to say goodby.

"Casey? You all set for the training cycle?"

"Yeah… Alex and Morgan, along with a dozen sectech's are going down with me. Should be a lot of fun."

"Well… you always did have an odd idea of fun. Dinner Friday night at our place."

"Right… Gert's in town, so she'll be coming too. See you!"

Sarah rose and walked Casey to the door. Chuck was curious as to why when he realized that she had locked the door.

Sarah locked eyes with Chuck as she made her way back to him. "Rebecca… you might want to shut down surveillance in here till I call… I don't think we are going to want an audience."

"Why… what are… oh… OH. Awesome… sexy time. Signing off."

Chuck kind of looked around with a confused look. "Sarah… what… I mean… um…"

"Chuck… we've never really properly 'christened' my office… and we have talked about a baby… well that requires lots and lots of practice."

Chuck gulped, then realized what a nerd he was being. He calmly stood and started slowly unbuttoning his shirt, a smolder on his face. "As you wish."

A/N: Well that's the end of this story. I do have a couple of other stories started in this universe, but it's going to be a while before I finish them. My daughter and niece have talked me into a novel writing challenge with them, so I'll be tied up with that till after the first of the year. Good luck, Happy Holidays and God speed.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 _ **White House**_

"Gentlemen… good afternoon."

"Good afternoon Mr. President." The Director of National Intelligence and National Security Advisor responded in unison. The President had been in office less than six weeks and the DNI and NSA had only been confirmed by the senate two weeks prior. Outside of regular briefings, this was their first official meeting.

"Before we get started with what I wish to speak to you about, can one of you tell me what the hell is going on in Europe? The press is having a field day with arrests of all kinds of polititians."

"Yes Sir… we will be going over it this afternoon at the regular briefing, but basically one of our teams broke a human trafficking ring that had a huge number of politicians on their payroll. It turned out to be quite a haul."

"Excellent, now as to the purpose of this meeting… as you both know, one of my campaign promises was an anti-corruption stand. The American people have lost faith in their elected officials and I intended to begin the process of restoring that faith. I'm open to ideas. I realize that Justice should be involved with this, and they will be somewhere along the line, but I feel that the intelligence community is a better place to start, rather than domestic law enforcement. I'm more worried about foreign governments controlling some of our legislators than just plain old money grubbing low life's."

"Well sir… the main issue is that the very people we would be investigating are part of the oversite process of the intelligence agencies and of the Justice Department. We inform those House and Senate committees on everything we do. How do we investigate the people we report to? Plus… who do we trust? Anyone within either Justice or the agencies could be just as corrupt as the people we are investigating and could sell out the investigation."

For the next fifteen minutes the trio debated the pros and cons of how to go about investigating members of the House and Senate.

"What if we set up a special investigative section within the executive branch?"

"That's fine, but how do we staff it without letting the fox into the hen house?"

The DNI and NSA shared a look. "I might have an idea on that Mr. President. There is a combined agency project called MAR. They are the group causing the ruckus in Europe…."

After a lengthy and somewhat frustrating explanation, the President sat and stared at his two senior intelligence officials. "So you'er telling me one of our most successful intelligence projects, is not even run by our people? That they are a bunch of mercenaries? And… you won't even tell ME who they are? What kind of mickey mouse organization are you people running?"

The pair gulped, looked at each other and the National Security Advisor answered. "First off Mr. President, they are less mercenaries than patriots. They all left their respective agencies for pretty much the same reasons we are talking about. They had lost faith in the trustworthiness in some of the personnel in their agencies. So they struck out on their own. And sir, they have done some VERY good work. As far as not being able to tell you who they are… it's not that we won't, it's that we can't. Besides the contracts, non-disclosure agreements, etc, we have signed, we physically can not tell you. Our… um… conditioning will not allow it." With those last words the NSA actually flinched. "That's actually the most I can say about that, sir. Please don't question me on this any further."

"Conditioning… what are you talking about… what kind of conditioning? What happens if I demand that you tell me who these people are and what they are doing? TELL ME!"

The NSA suddenly began to shake… his eyes rolled up into his head… every muscle tensed and he passed out. The DNI caught him before he could hit the floor and eased him down.

"Crap… I was afraid this would happen. Excuse me Mr. President, I need to get him out of here to a secure location."

The Presidents voice went up a whole octave, as well as a good number of decibels. "A secure location? What's more secure than the White House? What the hell is going on?"

"He told you Mr. President. You are asking questions about things we cannot physically talk about. Now, sir, if I may use one of the secure conference rooms downstairs."

In a huff, a clearly frustrated President responsed. "Yes… yes… go ahead."

The NSA's and DNI's bodyguards rushed into the room and hauled the comatose NSA's body out. Fifteen minutes later, the entire group, including the President, are in a secure conference room next to the war room.

While typing on a computer keyboard, the DNI addressed the room. "Okay, everybody out." He turned to the President. "I'm sorry sir, that includes you. You really don't want to be involved in this."

"This all has to do with the MAR program and this… um… outside intelligence group?"

"Yes sir."

"Then yes I do want to be involved. I insist."

One of the large video screens suddenly lit up. There sat Chuck and Sarah.

"Well Mr. President… you have put us in a very delicate position. But we'll have to play the cards as dealt. We are the Carmichael's, I am Charles and this is my wife Sarah. We run Carmichael Enterprises, the group you have been discussing. But first, let's take care of the NSA and keep the DNI from joining him."

At that Chuck and Sarah began speaking, each taking every other word. "Now… is… the… time… for… all… good… men… to… come… to… the… aid… of… their… country!"

The NSA's eyes popped open and he slowly sat up. "Oh damn that hurts. I've got a pounding headache." Looking around he saw the President and the Carmichaels on the screen. "Oh great!"

Chuck smiled. "Mr. Conrad. Thank you for doing your best… none of us realized the level of his stubbornness… ummm… the resolve, of the president. Mr. President, as I've said, you put us all in a very delicate position. As of this moment, you are the only person on the planet who knows about us and can speak about it. You witnessed what happens when a conditioned person is forcefully questioned about us or our organization. Everyone, and sir, I mean EVERYONE, who knows who we are and what we do, is conditioned in the same manner as the DNI and NSA. Everyone from them down to the janitor. Now, what would you like to know?"

"Who are you people?"

"We are a group of independent intelligence agents, analysts and scientists. We are also patriots of our country and citizens of the world."

"Why are you running our most successful project instead of it being in house?"

"Sir, the MAR project is your most successful one BECAUSE we are running it."

"Why? Why are you more successful than anyone else?"

"Um… we have… techniques, and abilities, that cannot be matched."

"Why do I get the idea you are telling me as little as you can?"

"Sir, what you don't know, cannot be tortured out of you."

"I'm the PRESIDENT!"

"Yes sir… for this term and possibly the next… but after that? Sir, we have learned over the years that no one is untouchable. If certain people find out you know who we are, you will be taken and forced to talk. Plus sir, as I said, you will not be President forever."

"And if I agree to be conditioned? Will you read me in completely? Tell me the whole story?"

The DNI and NSA looked at each other then looked at the screen. Everyone kind of shrugged. "Mr. President… if you really want to know that bad… then yes, after the conditioning we will read you in completely."

"Okay… then let's do it. Now!"

"Now?"

"Why not?"

"Do you have the time sir?"

"How long do you need?"

"Well we need to get a courier from Stronghold to you… that's about twenty minutes… then setting up the conditioning… " Chuck looks up for a second. "Rebecca, is Ellie in the building?"

A voice answers "Yes sir."

"Please have her come down."

Chuck and Sarah looked at each other. "Two hours sir… minimum. That depends on how many questions you have, how deep we go with the explanation and how much we put in the download."

"Do it."

An hour later, Ellie's image is on the screen. "I have the results of your test sir. Let me say I am very impressed. You scored very well… 8.0. It's a shame really, but we've discussed this and feel that only the conditioning should be loaded, without all the addon's that you could take. After your term in office is over, if you would like a position with us, we could certainly use you."

"ME? A spy? I don't think so."

"Well most of us are not spy's sir… a great deal of what we do is intelligence analysis and scientific research. If necessary, we pass the results on to the alphabet soup for action. May I ask your education level sir? Your bio is surprisingly lacking in detail concerning your education. We are still in the process of building a database of our users to see what correlates."

"Um… we don't advertise this because my media consultants are afraid the liberal media will label me an academic elitist. I have three Masters and two Phds. Political Science, Foreign Affairs and an MBA. And before you ask, my IQ is 153."

"Excellent… thank you sir. Chuck, will the screen he is viewing be okay?"

"Yes, it has the resolution we need."

"Okay… glasses everyone."

The President looks around and begins to chuckle. "I feel like this is a scene from Men in Black and I'm about to be neuralized."

That got everyone chuckling. Ellie cracked "My god Chuck… he's as big a nerd as you are! Okay, here we go." The download lasted for several minutes.

"How do you feel Mr. President?"

"I have a mild headache, but that's it."

Ellie nodded. "That's normal. We have several download programs. Because of the time constraints, I picked the middle one that loads fairly quickly, but leaves a headache. Take some aspirin and it should clear up in a half hour or so. Now I'm going to say some trigger words. You will suddenly remember what that trigger discloses. Ready? Intersect."

The President shuddered, then got a pensive look. "Well my first inclination is to ask, incredulously I may add, whether this technology actually works. But that would be kind of silly considering how I GOT the knowledge of the technology. I will say this is incredible. Any side effects or dangers?"

Ellie took that one. "Dangers? No sir. We have cleaned the tech up to make it both safe and reliable. Side effects? Well you know about the headaches on loading. There is also an issue with loading too much, that is, coming too close to an individual's limit. The governor mitigates that issue, but it is something we watch very carefully. With your intest score, I don't believe we could overload you, with or without a governor you are quite safe. You're not quite at my level, never mind Chucks, but you are quite high."

"Really… may I ask what your level is?"

Ellie had the grace to look a little flustered. "Um… we don't like to publicize anyone's score, it makes some feel bad and looks like bragging for others. I score 9.6. My husband Devon scores 8.9."

"Is the scale linear?"

"No… um… again, this sounds like bragging. The scale is logarithmic."

"Really? Then both 8.9 and 9.6 are remarkable scores. May I ask Chuck what yours is?"

Chuck looked sheepishly at Ellie then at Sarah, before answering. "My score is off the charts, sir. Near as we can figure, I score somewhere north of 20."

"WHAT? That sounds incredible." Chuck looked at Ellie, eyebrow raised.

Ellie answered "It's in there."

Chuck smiled and looked back at the President. "If you think about this for a moment you will see why we think my score, and Ellie's, are so high."

The president sat pondering for a second. "Orion? Orion was your father. He designed the intersect around his own brain? No… around YOUR brain. This tech was literally designed to work in your brain."

"Yes sir. The Bartowski blood line will always be the best intersects. As far we can tell, I received my first intersect when I was around eight years old, and we have found that it is impossible to remove. Evidently, my body adjusted to having the intersect during puberty and now it is a permanent part of my brain."

"This is going to complicate your children's lives to no end."

"Yes sir. Now you know why we are determined to keep knowledge of this tech as closely guarded a secret as possible."

"Well, in as much as your company is already a government contractor we should have no problem with you handling another project. What do you say Carmichael Enterprises… would you be willing to create an investigative unit within the executive branch to investigate outside influence on government and legislative individuals?"

"Who will be in charge?"

The President looked at the DNI and NSA, then looked back and said "Well I guess you… if you take the job. I'd like to have someone on the Cabinet level working with you… what do you think about the Vice-President?"

Chuck and Sarah looked at each other as they flashed. They both nodded then turned back to the President. "I think that would work. He's going to have to agree to being conditioned and questioned under a drug we use. Um… Mr. President… for this to truly work, we are going to have to question you also."

"ME?"

"Yes sir. Everyone… you, me, Sarah, the Vice-president, the DNI, the NSA… will have to go through an initial vetting process then periodically, say once every six months be re-vetted. It's the only way we can be sure this will work. I know that sounds paranoid but as the man said… 'Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get me!' Sir, understand, the people we are going to be investigating will stop at nothing to keep what they have and get more… more money, more control and more power. They will think nothing of killing half the people on the planet if they can control the other half."

"You make it sound like doom and gloom. How extensive do you think this is."

"Well sir… we as a group… while working with the CIA and NSA… helped destroy two organizations bent on world domination. I am quite certain there are more… both individuals and cabal's."

"Okay then… let's get started. What do we do first?"

"WE don't do anything. YOU are not to be involved with this on a day to day basis. Please speak to the VP about this. Be very general and remember you are conditioned… if you try to tell someone too much you're going to have a seizure like the NSA had. The head of the Secret Service already knows about us and is conditioned, and he has already briefed your Secret Service detail with what to watch for and who to contact. We'll start setting up a team immediately and will contact the Vice this week. Thank you Mr. President."

Chuck and Sarah just stared at the screen till it dropped off, then both let out a huge sigh. Chuck looked over at Sarah and said "I wonder if Diane Beckman would like a new job?"


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Should have mentioned this at the last chapter... I have two story lines running. The last chapter, with POTUS, will be a while before I return to it, if I do. This one carries more along the lines of the story.

Chapter 15

 _ **Nowhere, Arizona – Carmichael Enterprises Training Facility**_

"Attention on deck!"

All the Carmichael Enterprises personnel came to attention. Half the agency personnel kind of looked lost, while the other half, the ones with a military background, snapped to attention. Casey strode in and took a position at the front of the room. He looked over the assembled personnel with mild disgust.

"Ladies and gentlemen… morons one and all. You are members of a paramilitary organization and as such you will be expected to act like it. ON YOUR FEET MORONS! COME TO ATTENTION!"

Like they'd gotten an electric shock the ones not standing jumped to their feet and assumed the proper position. With a look of disdain, Casey looked over the sixty or so personnel standing before him. Shaking his head he walked around them.

"Really… this is the best the agencies have? Oh my God… what is our country coming to? What is western civilization coming to?" Taking a hard left he is suddenly face to face with one of the larger individuals of the group. "Do you believe you are one of the best, moron?"

"Sir, yes sir. I know I am. And I am not a moron. Sir." Casey could see it in his eyes. The skeptisim. This guy knew… not thought… knew, that he would get very little out of his 'special training'. Hell, he probably figured he should be an instructor, not a trainee. Casey looked him up and down.

"Step out. Let's see… " Looking around at the CE people. "Thomas… you're a size with this guy… want to try him?"

"Colonel… really… it would hardly be fair."

"Yes, you're right. Ummm… oh… Morgan… how about you try this guy." The little bearded man looked the trainee up and down and scoffed. The trainee just shook his head. He'd been around… he knew what was going on here. They were trying to get the trainee's in the proper state of mind to accept the training. Except he wasn't buying it. There is no way this little bearded troll was a match for him.

Casey was still playing it. "No… you're right Morgan. It wouldn't even be close." Casey looked around till his eyes landed on the petite young woman sitting behind the desk at the front of the room at a laptop. "Alex… come over here, please." The 5' 3" maybe 100 pound brunette rose and walked over to her father. Looking over at the 6' 2", 200 pound trainee, Casey laughed. "Yes… this is about right. Now… 'not-a-moron'… this is the head of our administrative group. She is not a field operative… she is not trained in any way, except for the 'special training' that we offer, and even that at only the most basic of levels. Now the only question is, will you accept a simple demonstration, or should I have her kick your ass?"

The trainee looked at Casey with a 'really' look and sneered. Casey gave his amused grunt. "Okay… she kicks your ass it is. Over to the mats please." Looking at Alex as they walk to the mats, Casey says "Please remember that he needs to finish his training, so don't hurt him too bad." By this point the trainee is pretty much pissed. As soon as they are on the mats he grabs Alex by her right wrist and twists it up behind her back. Well, that's what he tried to do. He did manage to grab her wrist… then he was on his back looking at the ceiling. He jumped to his feet to find a softly smiling Alex standing off to the side. He rushed her and took a foot in the belly and a spinning kick to the head. Again he was on the mat looking at the ceiling. It took a couple of seconds for him to focus then he again jumped to his feet. He took a martial arts stance and sidled in. He tried a kick, had his leg swept, which put him in the air, and got another kick to the head spinning him completely around before hitting the mat… again. For the next five minutes Alex, punched, kicked, flipped and tossed the young man around the mats. It was quite obvious to him… as well as everyone else… that she was pulling her kicks and punches. Finally he stayed down. A grinning Casey strode up, bent over and looked down at the trainee. The trainee was laid out flat on his back, and when his eyes finally focused, it was to see Casey's smirk.

"Tell me what happened trainee!"

"She kicked my ass… SIR!"

Smiling, Casey stuck his hand out to help the trainee up. "What's your name and affiliation?"

"I guess my name is Moron, Sir." Casey laughed as he pulled the guy to his feet. "Richards, Sir… NSA."

"Take your place Richards." Casey resumes his position in front of the class. "As effective as Alex is at hand to hand, it is nothing compared to how effective you will be. You will be learning a number of fighting disciplines, as well as gymnastics, parkour, marksmanship and a number of other skill sets, including five languages. More importantly, you will be learning how to operate as a TEAM… effectively and collectively. No matter what position you have within the team, you will know EXACTLY what you need to do for the team, and you will have an excellent idea of what everyone else on the team will do. You are going to become the best teams in the world. Totally synchronized and coordinated… like you've been operating together for years. Only better."

"Now, we will spend the rest of the morning going over administrative business then have lunch. At approximately 1300 hours, we will begin the training which will take 7 hours or so. For now, there is coffee and pastries. Mingle and get to know one another. When your name is called, I want you to come to this spot with all your paperwork, sing out your name in a loud, clear voice, give any and all past and current affiliations, then proceed through the door at the front left. ADAMS!"

Marching to the front, the young woman came to attention. "ADAMS, LEEANN. United States Army. FBI. Currently Hostage Rescue Team." She strode to the door and disappeared through it. On the other side she was met by one of the CE troopers who led her to an interview room.

"Have a seat Ms. Adams. I am Mike Stone. May I have your forms, please? Thank you." Mike looked over the paperwork, making sure she signed in all the appropriate places. He placed the paperwork in a basket, turned, opened a bottle of water and poured some into a plastic cup, pouring the remainder in another cup for himself. As soon as Mike gave it to her she drank some. Unbeknownst to her, the inside of the cup had babble juice dried onto it. Part of the paperwork was her agreeing to be questioned under truth drugs.

"Do you have any questions concerning the forms you have signed?"

"No sir."

"Have you signed them of your own free will?"

"Yes sir."

"Leeann, I'm going to ask you a series of questions. Please answer immediately, truthfully and honestly. Understand?"

Mike could see her eyes dilating from the drug, and kind of glaze over a little. "Yes sir."

"Are you now in a relationship with another person?"

"Yes."

"Are you cheating on that relationship?"

"No!" The Psychologists felt that cheating on a personal relationship indicated a certain moral looseness, something that could be exploited by enemies.

"Do you have any addictions, such as drugs or gambling?"

"No."

Mike went through a whole series of questions, taking a good five minutes. He could see the drug really starting to take effect now. Time for the big one. "Are you now or have you ever been in the past associated with, in any way, a group or organization in opposition to the government of the United States of America?"

"No."

"One last thing… an eye test. Please put these on." Mike handed the young woman a seemingly standard pair of sunglasses. As soon as she put them on she saw a series of images that flashed by so fast she couldn't focus on them, but her brain could. Mike took them off her and looked at a readout on the inside of the right stem. 5.3… checking her paperwork, he confirmed that this matched her initial test. Good score. Minimum for the training they were going to undergo was 3.0. She may very well get additional training later.

"Excellent. Thank you Leeann. Please go back to the hall, there are refreshments and beverages." Mike knew that with the dose of babble juice she got, she would be clear in less than 5 minutes.

With four interviewers, the sixty trainee's were processed in a couple of hours. Surprisingly, they only lost two trainees, one from the US team and one from the European team. In the first case, it was a hidden addiction to gambling and some $150,000 in debt. In the case of the European trainee, it was infidelity. Though the Europeans are somewhat looser morally, as far as faithfulness was concerned, the babble juice influenced confession made clear that the trainee himself considered what he was doing to be wrong, but just did not have the moral fortitude to stop. With those two individuals gone, with no memory of what had transpired, the training commenced. Ellie had developed a new upload process, that took somewhat longer than the old process, but was better for the tactical team members… less jarring, less disturbing… smoother as it were.

Next morning the training commenced. Up at 0400, they had PT till 0600, half hour to shower, then breakfast. Morning was hand to hand, weapons, gymnastics, parkour, field craft and a number of other skills training. Afternoon was scenario's. The first week was all on base, using live ammo in training houses with pop-up targets. The second week it got interesting.

Monday of the second week, they started their normal routine till noon. "Okay… afternoons from now on will be off base. A lot, if not all, of your actual work will be in urban or suburban areas. As such, you are going to train in those areas. We have an understanding with the local town, Prentis, whose people were quite enthusiastic with the proposal. CE owns a number of buildings in Prentis which will be the targets of our operations. To keep everyone honest and make it a little fun, we will be using either paintball guns or laser tag weapons. This afternoon's scenario is an assault on a building at 1428 4th street. There will be two phases. First you must get to the building without being identified. If a member of law enforcement approaches you, taps your shoulder and says "CE", you are out and will report back to base. You will not engage or in any way oppose said law enforcement individuals. Once you have made it to the building, you will regroup, arm and make an assault entry. There are no other rules concerning how you get to the address, just that we start at 1300 hrs and you MUST be at the building by 1400 hrs. It is approximately a fifteen minute trip. You know where the motor pool is. It is now 1200 hrs, so you have one hour for lunch and to plan. Dismissed."

Adams walked over to the planning area, which had lists of available vehicles and maps of the surrounding area. She saw Richards and moved in next to him.

"Richards? Want to try to go in together? I was thinking newlyweds as a cover. We could grab a sedan and just drive in. Anybody who asks, we're just passing through the area."

"Ummm. Seems too easy. According to the maps we are east of nowhere. NOBODY is just passing through this area. You're not here unless you've got a reason."

"Um… yeah, I think you're right. Is there a phone book? Pick someone at random… or better yet pick someone close to our target. If we're stopped we claim to be their remote cousin. We're on the way to… um… let's see… how about Albuquerque and your mother insisted we stop to say hello."

"Sounds better than anything I can come up with… besides, I'm a moron remember."

Laughing, Adams grabs him by the arm and starts pulling him toward the cafeteria. "Yeah I remember… come on moron, let's get some lunch."

By 1325 Adams and Richards are at the address for the afternoon's scenario. A small sign says "Carmichael Enterprises " next to a door. Cautiously they enter and are greeted by Colonel Casey.

"Well… at least you morons can read a map and follow a GPS. Gear up."

Going through the equipment Richards sneers. "Laser tag? Really?" He puts the gear on.

Casey gives him a look. "Really moron… you didn't learn your lesson the first time?" Casey picks up a laser gun and shoots Richards. With normal laser tag equipment, vest and helmet would begin flashing lights, indicating a hit. In this case, to Adams shock, Richards spasms for four or five seconds then drops to the floor like a felled tree."

Casey saunters over and just like the first day looks down. "Now moron… no showy lights or noise makers with our equipment… just a taser built into the vest." Looking at Adams, Casey sneers "He'll be fine by the time the rest get here."

The rest of the day proceeded without incident.

That night Casey, Alex, and Morgan met with Chuck and Sarah for dinner. The couple had come in the previous day, late, and started the agent training on Monday morning.

"How did the agent download go today."

Chuck looked at Sarah and both smiled. "Well… not bad all things considered. This first group was interesting, if nothing else because three of the class are already intersects…."

That morning… The prospective intersect agents filed into the meeting room. Counting Cole, Vicky and Carina, there were ten, three more agents for the Washington team, and four to go with Cole on the European team. Washington base was named Stronghold, and that team would consist of Carina, Vicky, Zondra, Vegas and Clark. Zondra didn't have a download yet but only because of her injuries, her recuperation only being completed the previous Friday. She had been fully vetted and briefed, and was incredibly excited, chomping at the bit as it were, to get her download. Of the team, Zondra was the senior agent, so unless one of the others proved superior, she would be the AIC for Stronghold. Carina and Vicky were on the team only until Casa was ready and their replacements download and trained. It looked like Carina would be the AIC at Casa, the thought being that most of their action would be drug related so having a DEA agent in charge made sense.

Of course that would be dependent on how she did in training. She did well with the team on the MAR mission, both freeing Zondra and later in France, but that was under Sarah's watchful eye and as part of the team. During this week, Chuck and Sarah planned on testing her as a team leader, to make sure she didn't revert back to her wild and loose methods. Even with the intersect, planning was still the key to successful missions.

Of course, Carina being Carina, she couldn't help herself and immediately began flirting with Vegas and Clark. She and Vicky must have already discussed this because both Chuck and Sarah noted that Vicky spent the entire week laughing at Vegas and Clark contending for Carina's attention… with Vicky winning the competition.

As with the Tacteams, the prospective intersect agents were to be vetted yet again. As team leads Zondra did Vegas and Clark, and Cole, with Vicky's help, did his four people. Fortunately, all six passed. They sat around making small talk, waiting for the babble juice to wear off the six agents, with Carina supplying the entertainment by continuing her flirting with not only Vegas and Clark, but also with the two male members of Cole's team.

By the Friday of the second week, the tacteams had gone through any number of scenarios and they had coalesced quite nicely. Every team member could perform every job on the team. Whether they were going in as a full twelve person team, three four person teams, four three person teams, six two person teams, whatever, each team member knew exactly what they were supposed to do, where they were supposed to be and exactly what every other person on the team was supposed to do. The team leader could adjust on the fly and with just a couple of code words the team could assume a completely different tactical makeup. If a trouper went down, everyone knew exactly what was expected of them to close the gap of the missing person. They even went so far as to 'kill' half a team several times during scenario's. Each time, the remainder of the team reorganized on the fly and continued the mission to a successful conclusion.

Casey once again stood at the front of the group, this time at the firing range. It was somewhat less formal with everyone standing around drinking coffee and watching Casey. They had done their standard morning routine and just finished lunch.

"Okay people. This afternoon we will be doing more equipment orientation. The MAR teams will be using equipment that is unique to our teams, very expensive and incredibly capable. You have all used the helmets to Bluetooth into the sights of the weapons. One of the things we haven't done is learn to shoot around corners." Casey dons his personal helmet. Now they can tell it's Casey's personal helmet because the front of the helmet, where the visor should be, is the face of a snarling wolf, which matches his call sign, wolf1. When issued equipment, they might be allowed to personalize it, at the whim of the team leader.

Casey had slaved his helmet output to several large screens at the front of the room. Standing next to a solid wall, Casey brings up his FN P90 rifle and points it around the corner, aiming at the targets. Instead of the normal grunt one would expect from Casey, they hear "Wolf… Pup primary." Suddenly the image on the screen changes. Where previously, the screen showed what Casey was looking at with his helmet and the image from his rifle sight was visible but muted, they swapped and the image from the sight dominated. With the rifle stuck around the corner and Casey looking at the assembled troupers, he proceed to empty his magazine into the dead center of the target.

"Wolf… primary." Again the screen changes, going back to the original view coming from Casey's helmet.

"The helmets have a computer built into them. You knew that. You need to learn the commands the helmet responds to and how to set it up. As you heard and saw, one of the things that I have done, was named my equipment. Wolf is my helmet, Pup is my FN P90 bullpup rifle. Side1 and side2 are my two sidearms, and if I was decked out in full combat equipment, the mini-grenade launcher that would be mounted on the top of my left arm is Left. So if I want the FN P90 sights to be dominate, I say 'Wolf… Pup primary' and the sights from the FN P90 become my primary view. I can still see what's around me, but the sight is primary. When the sidearms are in holster, the sights are turned off and the grenade launcher sight only comes on when I activate the launcher. Another thing the helmet will do, if you turn it on, is locate for you the source of gun shots. If you are patrolling, making a combat entry or some other scenario where a single shot needs to be located, you can have it on and the helmet will tell you where the shot came from. BUT… if you are in the middle of a firefight, and it's on, it's going to tell you the source of every shot it hears. That can get disturbing really quickly. That command is location so if I say 'Wolf location on' the helmet turns that capability on. You can see on the screen a 'L' symbol comes on, reminding me that location is on. You each have been issued a helmet for training. That is now your helmet. It has a manual built in, but you should already have the manual memorized as part of the initial training. If you need to refresh, simply say 'display manual' and you can read it on the helmet screen. Study and practice. Get used to having two or more scenes in front of you. You have to get used to multiple inputs so as not to be confused. Oh… and no personalization of the helmets until your team leader okay's it. Okay… get studying. When you feel you're ready, come back here and one of us will test you. Dismissed."

Adams came from the firing line having practiced a little, and sat next to Richards as the two scanned the manual. They had become friends during training with the possibility of more… but not now… not while occupied with training. They both hoped they would get assigned to the same schedule so they could see where this would lead.

"Damn Richards… these helmets are really impressive. It uses visual light, infrared, ultra-violet, lidar and sonar, then puts it all together and display's an image on the inside of the helmet. Audio sensors, radar… everything. You can even put it on auto and let it scan the surroundings while you sleep, then wake you if something comes up. Computer is pretty smart to. It will tell you for every individual on your screen whether they are friend, in blue, enemy, in red, civilian, in green, or unknown, with no halo. Damn…."

"You're right Adams… the only down side I can see is that if you run out of power it's useless. Outside of that… look at the communications options. Four separate channels, with frequency skipping. Not only can't comm's be tapped, we're going to be damn hard to jam. With four channels you can have four conversations going at once… that could get confusing."

"Yeah… but if you leave one listening to the master channel, one on the team channel and one on the squad channel, with the last in reserve, it should be easy."

"Look at this… if you are wearing the full BDU suit, the entire back of the suit, under the armor, is an addition battery, giving an additional 48 hours of power. Hey… I just hit the end of the manual and there are addendums. One is the equipment Table of Organization for each team. Let's see, a team will have three motorcycles for the scout/sniper teams, three four-door, 4-wheel drive pickup's with covers on the bed, a comm van and a SUV for the agents. Holy shit! Look as the weapons inventory for each of the pickups. Ammo, of course, for the bullpup and the side arms. Three 7.62 heavy rifles and a medium machine gun using the same ammo. M320 grenade launcher attached to the rifles. The mini-grenade launcher that the Colonel mentioned. Anti-tank Javelins. PIKE mini-missiles. M32 grenade launcher 6 round revolver. Wow… there's some heavy fire power in the bed of those trucks. Looks like one of the three has a cap instead of a cover, because it has a M-2 heavy machine gun on a tripod along with boxes of ammo for it."

"Adams, quit drooling over the hardware… we're supposed to be learning about the helmets."

"Yeah… I'm all set with that. I'm going over to get certified, see you later." Richards was only a little jealous. He'd spend another ten or fifteen minutes reviewing and practicing, just to be sure.

That afternoon, they had a little graduation ceremony and the tacteams met their agents. For the final week of their training, Casey and the CE cadre would make the drills as realistic as possible. For each session they would form a team of three agents, twelve troopers for the tacteam and three scout/sniper teams. They would be given a scenario and either an hour to plan or Foxfire ran the operation. If Foxfire ran it, they would get a quick brief then go right in, just as they would in the real world. At first they were acting out the plans on base. By the third day they were running scenario's in Prentis. Neither law enforcement nor citizens had any idea of what was going on.

By Friday, everyone was completely satisfied with the results. Beckman had been following the training remotely, as had Director Mills of the CIA, and both were impressed beyond measure. The agents were pulling off things that were not just exceptional, they should have been flat out impossible. In one scenario, Cole and two of his European Team did a spider man climb up the side of a building, then walked, no they ran, from one building to the next on a wire stretched between the two buildings. Jason Bourne would have been envious of the stuff they were pulling off. In another scenario, Vicky entered a room with an enemy twenty feet away across the room. She advanced on him, swaying from side to side, dodging the (rubber) bullets he was firing at her until she was within reach and disarmed him. He had emptied the entire clip and missed every shot, some from as close as two feet.

As for the tacteams, not only did each individual have superior skills, they were incredibly coordinated and in sync. They operated as if they were all being controlled by one mind, like fingers on a hand, every member of the team doing EXACTLY what he or she should be doing, no matter what screw balls the instructors threw at them. They were all as ready as they could possibly be. Friday afternoon they had another little graduation ceremony and Friday night had a party in the cafeteria complete with a bar and DJ. Saturday would be a day off, with everyone heading home on Sunday.

Chuck was surprised when his phone rang late Friday night while he and Sarah were mingling with the graduates.

"Charmichael, secure in public."

"Beckman, secure. Chuck, please get some where private… oh and bring Sarah with you, if she's around." He snagged Sarah and they went to one of the secure conference rooms.

Chuck put his phone on speaker. "Go ahead General."

"Chuck… Sarah… I hate to do this but we have a problem. The director of NCIS and his family has been taken captive by a drug cartel in Mexico. The locals are reluctant to try anything, for a number of reasons, and you and your people are the closest, and to be honest the most capable team available. Can you help?"

"Of course Diane. I just checked my e-mail and see you have already sent the particulars. Confident were we?"

"Come on Chuck. You know damn right well there was a snowball's chance in hell you wouldn't help."

Snikering, Chuck said "Yeah I know, but you could have waited till we said yes. Let us look this over and get back to you. What do we have for assets… equipment… vehicles… what ever?"

"Whatever you need Chuck. If you can find it close enough to use it's yours. Um… there's just one thing… I don't think you should be involved in the execution of the operation…"

"Uh oh… I don't like the sound of that. Why not?"

"We don't want anyone to know who really did this. We're hoping to pass it off as one Cartel taking out another Cartel… and yet send a message at the same time. They want everyone in the compound dead… everyone."

"But what if some of the families are…"

"Everyone Chuck."

Chuck stood unresponsive. Sarah put her arm around him and pulled him to her. "I understand Diane. We'll do has to be done."

"Thank you Sarah… Chuck… I'm sorry it has to be this way. Signing off."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

 _ **Nowhere, Arizona – Carmichael Enterprises Training Facility**_

The entire CE personnel, all the agent trainees and the tacteams were in the auditorium. Chuck brought up the first slide of the quick presentation he had prepared.

"Okay… here's what we've got. The Mendosa Cartel have taken hostage the Director of NCIS, his wife and their two children, who were vacationing in southern California. They are demanding the release of some fifty of their people being held in prisons in both the US and Mexico. Satellite recon shows the hostages being held in the Mendosa compound on the east coast of the Gulf of California around Puerto Penasco. The compound consists of the Hacienda, a building identified as the garage… what we would call the motor pool… two barracks, and a surrounding ten foot high wall with a parapet and guard towers. The guard force looks to be around sixty plus another fifteen or so in the Hacienda. The compound is approachable only from the east, with deep gullies on the north and south, and a seventy foot high bluff on the west facing the gulf. The mission we have been assigned is to get in, extract the Director and his family… then kill everyone in the compound."

The silence was deafening. A mass assassination of over seventy individuals is bad enough, but the possibility of women and children being included puts it beyond the pale.

"I am going to propose a… um… different solution to the powers that be…."

It took the rest of the night and the morning of the next day, but by noon they were ready. As this was drug related, Carina was put in charge of the first field team, with Zondra and Vegas, to do the actual rescue, and a nine person team from the Warriors, what would become the DC tacteam, backing them up. The Guards, the English tactical team, were being kept out of it, as were the European agents. Not because they didn't want in, but for political reasons everyone thought it best to not include them, just in case this ever came to light. A second field team consisted of Vicky and Clark, with the remainder of the Warriors and all the raptor teams. After everyone got some sleep, the operation kicked off at sunset.

Four Osprey MV-22 aircraft left New Mexico, crossed Mexican territory and flew over the Gulf of California, all at minimum altitude. It was pitch black and all were wearing Night Vision Googles (NVG). Reaching a specific GPS location the aircraft went into a hover. Three were at the points of an isosceles triangle, rear ramps pointed in, while the fourth stood off at some altitude.

Adams, Richards and Calhoon, deployed a RIB off the ramp of their Osprey quickly. Adams commanded the trio, whose job it was to transport an agent, Carina in this case, to the beach unnoticed, and support said agent. The other two Ospreys had teams doing the same. Carina watched in awe as the trio; deployed the RIB, loaded all the equipment and weapons, got her on board and properly situated, fired up the engine and cast off to meet the other boats, all without a word being spoken and in something less than three minutes. Rapidly the three RIB's left the Osprey's and headed for the beach. The forth Osprey had deployed four quad-coptor drones. Having discharged their cargos, three of the four MV-22's headed north-east toward the shore. Carina snickered looking at the team she was riding with… brains, brawn and from what she's seen of Calhoon, tech.

The RIB's made landfall approximately a thousand meters north of the target compound. After switching from the outboard motors to silent electric motors, they turned south and beached below the hacienda. Carina, Zondra and Vegas scaled what the Cartel members were sure was the unscaleable bluff. The four drones were now sitting a hundred meters out from the hacienda above the team. Two were using infrared, sonar, radar and lowlight cameras to surveil the building, determining exactly where everyone was and what they were doing. They had detected that the back patio, between the house and the bluff, was covered by motion detectors, but Chuck defeated them using the second pair of drones sending RF signals at the detectors, degrading their performance. When the agents neared the top of the bluff the drones went into action. Carina moved across the patio so slowly the degraded detectors never tripped. Getting to the side of the house, she plugged in one of Chucks patented routers and Firefox took over the security system of the entire compound. Vegas and Zondra then came across the patio and the three entered the house.

The agents made short work of the three guards patrolling the house, then commenced a quick search of the occupied rooms. Fortunately, the Director and his family were in adjoining rooms with the Director being tied to a chair, obviously having been interrogated. Fortunately, he was still mobile. Gathering the family, Zondra led them out back and across the patio to three waiting Warriors, where the four were strapped into harnesses. The director assisted his wife in repelling down the bluff face, being preceded by one of the Warriors, in case she slipped. Before they stepped off, the director had watched in fascination as two of the biggest humans he had ever seen had his children strapped to their chests and calmly backed off the edge and rapidly descended to the beach. The only noise made through the entire operation were the Directors kids squealing in glee as they went down the bluff face like it was an amusement park ride.

While this was happening, Carina and Vegas completed Chucks plan. Moving through the house they visited each and every person in the hacienda. Finished, they calmly exited, moved across the patio to the waiting repelling ropes. Down the bluff face, into the RIBS and out to the Osprey standing off the coast. Just like that the mission was half over. The Osprey made a stop to drop off the agents and warriors on the mainland before heading back to the US with the rescued director and his family. Not taking any chances, General Beckman had made one change to Chucks plan, having two F-35's waiting at the US/Mexico border to escort the Osprey to base. She was perfectly willing to order them across the border if ANYTHING looked amiss. Fortunately, nothing did.

While all this was going on, the remainder of Marine Squadron VMM-362, cargo lifted five pickup trucks, two SUV's, five motorcycles and a comm van to a spot three kilometers east of the Mendosa Compound, along with the second field team and their supporting tactical team. They set up to insure no one escaped the compound.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The next morning the Cartel leaders awoke to find three very groggy guards and no hostages. In their place was a cell phone with a sign that said "Call speed dial 1."

A voice with an odd accent answered. "Good morning to the Mendosa Cartel leadership. Well it's a good morning for me… not so much for you. You have intruded into my business and I will not tolerate it. Now, first the threat. Everyone in the hacienda has been poisoned. It is a long acting poison which will take forty eight to fifty hours to work. However, just to prove my point, one of you was given a little different version which will kill within eight hours. Now calculating from the time it was administered, the unlucky individual will die around 10:00 or so."

Everyone looked at each other. It was now 8:00.

"Now the good news. If you act quickly everyone can be saved. I have been looking to get into the drug business, well the production side, I already have something of a distribution network, so I will be buying you out. You will get a call back around 9:00 am from my local people, with the offer. If you accept, you will be given the antidote and everyone lives. If not we wait and you will get another call at noon. If you still do not accept, we'll just wait till you are all dead, then move in. It will be much messier… we much prefer buying you out than waiting till you are dead, but what happens happens. The caller at 9:00 will identify himself as representing Volkoff Enterprises, that will be how you will know him. Good day." The call disconnected.

The four members of the leadership stood looking at each other. Volkoff! How the hell was he involved in this? Each of them knew, if this was Volkoff, they were dead men walking. Their families were here with them, for safety they thought. Not that it mattered… if this was Volkoff he would hunt down the families and kill everyone, no matter where they were. Each pulled out a cell phone and began frantically making calls. Twenty minutes later they came back together.

Jorge, Fredrico, Juan and Alfonso sat at the table. "SHEET… It looks like it really is Volkoff. Evidentially this NCIS Director is one of his informants. Madre Dios… no wonder he is so powerful, with informants at that level."

"Forget that Jorge… what do we do now? If we don't sell, he will kill us."

"We don't have time to do anything. Someone will die in less than two hours… it could be one of us."

The four sat looking at each other. Finally Alfonso spoke in a caustic voice. "You are a bunch of weaklings. This is bullsheet. We strike back… that's what we do. We have two days. Put a million dollar bounty on Volkoff's head and tell him we'll take it off if he gives us the antidote. I don't know how they got the bastard and his family out but they couldn't have gotten far… have teams of men sweep the area and find them. They probably are close by."

The other three quickly agreed, his confidence infecting them and arrogance returning to all of them. They are the Mendosa Cartel… they will find who did this and kill them. Four man teams began streaming out of the compound, spreading out across the area to look for any sign of intruders. The locals will report anything or anyone unusual when asked… they know better than to withhold information. Of course there was nothing to find, even on the patio there was nothing left behind except three pitons hammered deeply into the rock face and basically unnoticeable. Nothing to find, that is, till the first team ran into a road block. Arrogantly, they drove right up to the block. Two men stood at either side of the block in regular clothes. When the Cartel soldiers were close they realized that the two men had some kind of hood covering their faces and were wearing some kind of skull cap helmet.

The Cartel team leader exited the car and began yelling. "Who the fuck are you? What the fuck are you doing here? Put your hands up and come here." The other three men had gotten out of the car, and the leader reached for his gun. Between one heart beat and the next, all four were down, tranq darts sticking out of their necks. Of the sixty guards at the hacienda, ten four man teams were sent out. All of them were intercepted by Warrior teams. The drones were still watching. Most of the Cartel teams were captured, but one team had a leader a little smarter than the rest. He stopped them a good fifty yards from the road block and had his men arm themselves with automatic rifles before advancing on foot. They got to within thirty yards when the firefight broke out. The shooting lasted all of five seconds and four cartel soldiers were dead.

At 9:00 the cell phone rang. Alfonso answered and put it on speaker. "This is Ivan Thresskoff. I am an employee of Mr. Volkoff. He was decided to offer you two million US dollars each. The deal is he takes over your operation and the four of you, with your families, disappear. If you try to reestablish your business either here or elsewhere, you will be killed, along with your families."

Alfonso begins yelling. "THIS IS ALL BULLSHEET… THERE IS NO POISION… OUR MEN WILL FIND YOU AND WE WILL KILL YOU… SLOWLY. WE HAVE PUT A MILLION DOLLOR BOUNTY ON VOLKOFF'S HEAD. SURRENDURE TO US, GIVE US THE ANTIDOTE AND WE WILL REMOVE IT." Alfonso continued his rant for several more minutes till he realized that there was only silence coming from the other end of the call. "WELL? WHAT DO YOU ANSWER?"

"Are you done? Thank you. Obviously you are not receptive to our offer at this time. I will call back at noon, with a revised offer." The call disconnected.

Silence reined for several seconds, then the four began yelling at each other… they yelled at people on the phone… they yelled at their lieutenants… they screamed and yelled for over an hour. They demanded information from their underlings concerning the teams that had been sent out. Nothing had been heard from them. Jorge and Alfonso wanted to send out more men to find out what was going on, but Fredrico and Juan didn't want to weaken their guard force any more than it already had been, arguing that they were down to just twenty men now… better to wait till some of the search teams either reported in or came back. The yelling went back and forth, till Jorge took several strained breaths and dropped to the floor. Juan looked at his watch. "It's ten o'clock, just like Volkoff said." Now three… they sat heavily and sputtered and fumed. A lieutenant came in and told them that none of the search teams were answering their cells and nothing could be seen from the walls. Finally at noon, the phone rang again.

"Good afternoon. This is Ivan Thresskoff again. Mr. Volkoff is still willing to buy you out. Last chance."

"Um… ah… we… we will be willing to negotiate. Two million will not be enough… we want five million each."

A laugh came through the phone. "I'm sorry… that was just too funny. Mr. Volkoff's offer is now one and a half million each. In his generosity, he is willing to pay the family of dear departed Jorge the same amount."

Alfonso jumped to his feet. "NO…NO… YOU CAN NOT COME IN AND TAKE OUR BUISINESS… THIS IS OURS… WE BUILT IT… WE RUN IT…. YOU CAN NOT…."

Again a laugh from the phone. "The offer is now down to one million each. Shall we continue to negotiate?"

Alfonso screamed at the phone again. "NO… IT IS OURS… WE WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY…" his tirade was cut short by the sound of a gunshot. Juan said "Mr. Thresskoff… we accept your offer."

"Excellent. You will find vials of the antidote in the kitchen… the top shelf of the cabinet just to the left of the sink. The bottles are marked paprika."

And that was that. The only casualties were the four man team that was too smart for their own good and Alfonso. Jorge wasn't even dead. They had all been dosed with a nerve agent that put the recipient in a coma that took a doctor to recognize from death. When the Volkoff team rolled up to the front gate… a real Volkoff team headed by Thresskoff, a real Volkoff employee whom Chuck had hastily summoned from the Citadel the prior day… there was some posturing and bravado, but when Thresskoff told them the 'antidote' they were given really wasn't an antidote, the braggadocio fled and the cartel soldiers all gave up. The leadership, with their families, were taken away. They were delivered to the Warriors tacteam,Thresskoff's men assuming they were another Volkoff team. The cartel leadership spent the next month under interrogation, giving up all they knew about not only their own operations, but everything they knew about their competitors. They all broke on the first day… well you really couldn't say broke, because they thought they were explaining their operation to the new 'owner'. The interrogations lasted a month because of the sheer amount of data and the number of interrogatees. From start to finish, they believed they were being held and questioned by Volkoff Enterprises employees.

When Chuck had made his proposal to Beckman concerning capturing them all rather that killing everyone, she didn't question whether he could pull it off… she just quickly began putting together a black site just over the border in Mexico to hold all the prisoners she knew would soon be coming. She really thought she would get more push back from the Joint Chiefs and POTUS, when she presented Chucks plan… but they seemed relieved with it, almost like they were happy they didn't have to kill everyone to make a point. Maybe there was hope for them after all… maybe there was even hope for her.

Chuck and Sarah sat in the command center of the Arizona facility. From start to finish, all they did was watch. Yes, they had input on the planning… it being Chuck's concept… but for the most part, after Chuck explained his idea, the agents and tactical team members took it and ran. This was a little more realistic scenario than they wanted for the final test of the team, but it proved exactly what the teams were capable of and both Chuck and Sarah were highly satisfied with the results. However, it was hard on both of them, more so for Sarah, to just watch someone else operate.

Sarah looked at Chuck, a combination of feeling crossing her face. "So… this is our future? Watching someone else do the mission."

"This is what we talked about. We wanted a safer life style. This is it. Yes we'll have input with the planning… we do the training… hell we might even be Foxfire on occasion, but we are out of the field." Chuck reaches over and rubs Sarah's small belly. "This guy or gal will have a mother and a father. Right?"

"Absolutely."


End file.
